Word: eliza
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...more of a real lady than he though. In My Fair Lady, Shaw's play became the inspiration for some memorable songs. In the current Leverett House production which goes far beyond what Shaw saw as the limiting factor of class bounds. Maura Moynihan is unforgettable as an Eliza Doolittle who reveals the duchess hidden in the flower girl (and vice versa) after all. And Andrew Agush's Henry Higgins sees only that which he wants to see about Eliza in a way that makes his portrayal endearing as it opens the character to fault. It is mostly thanks...
...capitalist midsts. His dubious hero in Pygmalion is exactly the kind of man who would not be receptive to tactics such as these: a leading London phoneticist determined to translate a flower girl into a "duchess" so effectively that, he wagers, no one will be able to tell. But Eliza, the Cinderella duchess, is not "fit for" either class. Not totally accepted by those of her new station in life, totally unable to return to the life of the city streets, she is forced to brave the world alone. By chasing after a false illusion of middle class splendor, Shaw...
...price. While their brisk delivery, faithful to the rhythms of dry British humor, works to maintain what is essentially a static play in lively motion, this fast-clipped pace skims over the surface of deeper meanings. Part of the problem here is built into the play itself which shows Eliza Doolittle before and after while leaving out the tranformation process. But part of the problem is Bloomfield's decision to emphasize the constraints of class rather than the human beings who are trying to break these constraints...
...sometimes a mood is missed. Returning from the garden party which was Eliza's trial by fire, Higgins and his companion Colonel Pickering are filled with the nervous energy of expectation instead of the self-satisfied exhaustion they should be feeling after the successful ordeal they shared. But ironically even this weakness ends up working in favor of the production. This Pygmalion links its audience to the lack of connection between the classes in this age. It is as though, instead of having tried to make real contact with the poor, the actors, like the middle class philanthropists they...
PYGMALION IS A PLAY about individuals triumphing over class boundaries. The ultimate success of any production of the play depends on the actors' handling of the lead roles. Maura Moynihan's protrayal of Eliza is rich enough to do justice to Shaw's famous study of the poor flower girl. From the first moment when she pleads with passers-by in a beguiling drawl, Moynihan gives a superlative performance. Whether clothed in rags or in a silk robe, she mixes the pride and shame of a woman who knows she is a truer lady than those who only appear...