Candida

Reviewed by Holly Bartges

Combine the master wordsmith, George Bernard Shaw, with the master director, Ed Baierlein and the result is a feast for ears and eyes. Shaw’s hilariously poignant play Candida, first produced in 1897, flies high, wide, and handsome on the Germinal stage with a highly brilliant cast.

David Fenerty as Morell adn Lisa Mumpton as Candida in George Bernard Shaw’s Candida.

There are some who say Candida is way outdated, and anyone who produces it should apologize to all the women who have chosen younger men over men their own age.

I couldn’t disagree more. It all depends upon how it is approached when produced. This is definitely not a play for novices, but then I am not sure any of Shaw’s plays are. They are meant for directors and actors who can climb between the lines, beyond outward superficiality, into the souls of the characters involved and the issues at stake.

Sallie Diamond’s costume design provides the illusion the characters who just stepped out of an 1800’s photograph. Baierlein’s stage dressing for the inside of James and Candida’s home provides depth to the Germinal’s small stage.

Candida, beautifully revealed from the inside out by Lisa Mumpton, thrives in the flutter of the attention of a young poet, Eugene Marchbanks, deliciously attacked by Zachary M. Andrews. A very young poet indeed, all of 18 years old, caught in the swirl of flowery poetic words and heightened expressions leaving his face in a perpetual twist.

Candida happens to be comfortably married to the pragmatic, straight and narrow Reverend James Mavor Morell who fills long nights with long lectures on socialism to anyone who calls him. Played straight, narrow, and pragmatic, David Fenerty takes James for a mechanical walk through pastoral duties and lectures with as much passion as some of our recent political wannabe’s. Keeping James on the dutiful straight and narrow is what he’s all about.

Passion can get bumbling out of control as with James’s young assistant Lexy Mill, played with eager- to-please-stumbling-anxiousness by Patrick Mann. His mind works faster than his body can keep up. Always wanting to do the right thing at the right time in the right place, inexperience frequently gets in his way. Mann doesn’t miss a beat with his delicious eager portrayal.

Uptight as an e string on a violin, Robin Wallace takes Proserpine Garnet, James’ secretary, for a hair-pulled-back straight-laced organizer. Wallace entices sympathy for her moralistic behavior and at the same time teases humoristic smiles over her imprisoned desire to be a woman. When Marchbanks unleashes his poetical romantic verbiage on her, watching her melt uncontrollably inside is a stitch and a half.

Stephen Kramer gives one of the strongest performances of his career, and he’s had several, as Mr. Burgess, James’ father-in-law. His stance, gestures, expressions body language, and chastisements towards James become an awesome character study in consistency.

The young impudent Marchbanks becomes convinced Candida belongs to him, wants him, and will leave James for him. He’s the exciting passionate one who can fulfill her every need. Although visibly rattled in confidence, James stands firm that Candida is his wife. His words stand firm while his body language screams worry.

Verbally battling each other, with ego-centered quibbles, both forget to take into account Candida’s strong-willed perspective. She demonstrates a mind of her own, and knows how to use it.

Choosing James because he needs to be babied, knowing full well she plays the role of mother, sisters, and wife to him, he needs her most because of his weakness. Some Shaw critics point to this as the play being out of date. Women’s liberation changed the idea that women want to take care of their men. And yet many women continue to cling to that very idea. One doesn’t have to look far in our society to see it.

Candida holds power in the palm of her hand that goes way beyond a woman wanting to take care of a man. She runs their house, letting James believe he does. His power centers on his sense of duty, which can’t hold a candle to Candida.

There’s more at stake in Shaw’s writing than a woman choosing between comfort flaunted in a weak husband over against an exciting flowery poet, There’s the political debate between structure and free-spirit, between Socialism and the Arts. The one who chooses holds the power to choose.

Candida’s quick sharp mind puts the all too young Marchbanks in his place with his own words, laughing off his age. His very language points in the direction of his not knowing who he really is. Although flattered by his attention, her sharp eyes and quick brain see straight to the core of his immaturity.

While laughing through the detailed delightful characters, their use of Shaw’s brilliant language, Shaw interjects strong political dichotomies to chew on. Even though the play is over a hundred years old, human nature remains human nature.

Candida most definitely is a “Don’t Miss” play because it is Shaw, because Baierlein knows how to climb inside a script revealing all of the innuendoes, and the magnificent artistic cast disappears into delightful humored fine-tuned characters providing plenty for the mind to toy with.