Minola Theatre presents George Bernard Shaw’s classic tale of class and culture, Pygmalion, as their first production of 2024, directed by Kat Dekker. First performed in 1913, the play takes its title from the Greek mythological figure of Pygmalion, a sculptor who fell in love with a statue he had carved, and was also adapted into the award-winning musical My Fair Lady.
Pygmalion focuses on a bet between two upper class gentlemen – Professor Higgins, a phonetician, and Colonel Pickering, a linguist of Indian dialects – that Higgins can transform the Cockney-speaking and street-smart flower girl Eliza Doolittle into a lady and pass her off as a duchess in high society. Interested in bettering herself and initially aspiring to work in a flower shop rather than selling flowers on the street, Eliza agrees to the experiment and applies herself to learning a more refined way of speaking and conducting herself, in accordance with upper class social expectations.
The key themes of the play revolve around ideas of nature versus nurture, and the inherent virtue and value of a person regardless of social class. Eliza is a woman of principle even as a flower seller, describing herself as a “good girl”. By contrast, Higgins is impatient, inconsiderate, and prone to melodramatic outbursts despite his wealthy upbringing and education.
When the bet is won, and the men have no further use for Eliza, she wonders what will become of her now that she is trapped by respectability and the constraints placed on her as a woman of a certain class. Higgins suggests that she might find someone to marry, but Eliza is distraught to find that she could not return to her old life, even if she wanted to, and feels that the independence she had in her lower-class life has been taken from her.
While Minola Theatre has frequently focused on intimate, one-person shows, Pygmalion features a larger ensemble. Minola Theatre’s co-Artistic Director Bianca Butler Reynolds played the role of Eliza Doolittle with sincere emotion and impressive range, as well as managing Eliza’s changing accent and poise as the play progressed.
Ben Snaith and Drew Lochrie were a perfect pair as Professor Higgins and Colonel Pickering. Snaith brought a high energy and physical comedy to Higgins’ petulant tantrums and lack of social graces, which was beautifully balanced by Lochrie’s gentle and understated performance as the more level-headed and attentive Pickering. While the Colonel and the Professor meet at the beginning of the play and both profess to be long-term bachelors, Pickering moves into Higgins’ house during the “experiment” of transforming Eliza and Dekker’s staging seemed to hint at a more intimate relationship between the two men.
Martie Blanchett was a stately and commanding Mrs Higgins and Glenn Seaby brought an earnestness and rough humour to the role of Eliza’s father, Alfred Doolittle. Sandra Harman played a politely exasperated Mrs Pearce, Professor Higgins’ housekeeper, as well as the role of Mrs Higgins’ parlour maid. The cast was rounded out by Kat Bhathena as Mrs Eynsford-Hills, an acquaintance of Mrs Higgins, and Ben Postle and Natasha Lawrence as her children Clara and Freddy.
Costuming and design drew inspiration from the play’s Victorian English and ancient Greek origins with a palette of white, gold, and bronze. Lighting and sound design by Calvin Baker underlined the emotion of the scenes and created dynamic transitions between the two key settings in the play. Musical interludes with modern songs accompanied the changing set, which was managed by the ensemble and repurposed many of the same items between Professor Higgins’ home and his mother’s while still making each setting distinct.
The cast and creatives of Minola Theatre have rendered the social commentary and the humour of this classical play beautifully; I had never seen Pygmalion onstage before and it was much more laugh-out-loud funny than I expected, between the wit of the writing and the comedic timing and physical comedy of the cast under Dekker’s direction.
First performed over a century ago, Pygmalion remains a fresh work in the hands of Minola Theatre, asking questions of class, integrity, and our responsibility in seeking to shape ourselves and each other.
Pygmalion is playing at the Ron Hurley Theatre, Seven Hills, from 2 – 10 February 2024
For ticketing and further information, visit the website
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