Word: heartbreaking
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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With the aid of an outstanding cast, director Daniel Sherman and producer Rick Livingston have rendered admirably Shaw's light-hearted pandemonium and his apocalyptic vision of a new European class consciousness. Although the characters in Heartbreak House loosely represent symbolic roles in English society, they consistently refuse to be stereotyped. As the play progresses, each character develops, gradually revealing more and more depth. In the end, Shaw's portraits remain ambiguous and a challenge to decipher, leaving nuances of their portrayal up to the discretion of the director and actors...
BECAUSE this Dunster House Drama Society production tends toward the light-hearted and comic event, the two most malevolent characters are evoked sympathetically. Therefore, the members' of Heartbreak House failure to show alarm or despair at the deaths of Mangan, the deceitful businessman, and Billy Dunn, the burglar and ex-pirate, is not credible...
...whose single-minded business interests threaten to overthrow the existing social order. John instead portrays the kind of character who was kicked around during kindergarten and is only now getting his revenge on humanity. His frenzied, whining manner accords--often hysterically--the Mangan who cannot keep pace with Heartbreak House's ever-changing pretensions. But because his malice barely emerges, John's performance can perhaps best be defined as comic basrelief. Similarly, Peter Ginna is almost endearing as the burglar who not only convinces his captors to release him but persuades them to take up a collection...
...ultimate source of chaos, confusing Mazzini Dunn for Billy Dunn, ignoring the arrival of his long-lost daughter Lady Ariadne Utterword and spewing forth random comments as he wanders aimlessly on and off the stage, the Captain is the only one who remains oblivious to the frenzy of Heartbreak House: "I've stood on the bridge for 18 hours in a typhoon," he declares. "Life here is stormier; but I can stand...
...absence of such clear distinctions in other aspects of Heartbreak House suggests why the play has been subjected to numerous interpretations since its first performance in 1920. Shaw's final act is especially ambiguous and leaves the audience pondering whether the playwright entertained hopes for the establishment of a new social order or whether, like Chekhov, he foresaw only a grim continuation of existing institutions...