Word: superman
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...Ibsen. The American Repatory Theater production of "The Wild Duck" was the yummy cake under the overrated icing to this year's strong season. Other fine performances included "Man and Superman," "Woyzeck" and "The King's Stag...
...surface, "Man and Superman" is a delightfully Shavian romantic comedy which reverses conventional roles by making the woman the vigilant pursuer and the man the hapless prey. The woman, Ann Whitefield (Kristin Flanders), is past mistress of twisting men around her little finger, and she has designs on her childhood companion, Jack tanner (played with dynamic vigor by Don Reilly), a young man and a decided taste for overbearing oratory. Much to his consternation, Jack is appointed one of Ann's guardians after her father's death--the other one being a confirmed old conservative, Roderick Ramsden (Alvin Epstein...
...this Hell is the refuge of people bored by Heaven, such as the Statue; the Devil is an amiable aesthete with a nihilistic view of man's destiny; and Don Juan himself is a man bored by the mindless hedonism of Hell and consumed with the idea of a Superman--a being detached from crude physicalities and endowed with a perfection of intellect that marks the final step of human evolution. Don Juan and the Devil engage in a lengthy debate that ends with Don Juan's going off to Heaven for more thorough contemplation of his ideas...
What remains, however, and what ties the dream back to earth is the idea of the life force which inexorably draws men to women. The life force fuels the positive evolution that allows man to reach the ultimate status of Superman. When Dona Ana concludes the Hell Scene with her cry, "Then my work is not yet done!" we know what is in store for her modern-day counterpart (and don Juan's) upon the latter's waking...
This is not the fault of the presentation but rather of Shaw, who never hesitated in subjugating his role as a dramatist to what he felt were his duties as a social crusader. Nonetheless, "Man and Superman" remains one of Shaw's most intriguing and memorable plays, and the ART has succeeded brilliantly in bringing it to new life on stage...