Tuesday, April 21, 1998
Production leaves audience heartbroken
THEATER: Inconsistent accents, wooden acting cripple classic by
Shaw
By Danielle Myer
Daily Bruin Contributor
George Bernard Shaw, in his wittiness, would probably have
laughed at the misinterpretation and poor representation of his
play, "Heartbreak House." Running at the Knightsbridge Theatre in
Old Town Pasadena, the actors and director did the play a gross
injustice with inconsistent accents and fumbled lines. Though the
set was successful in depicting an early 20th century English
household, the players were not.
Set in England in 1914, eight men and women gather together at
the home of Hesione and Hector Hushabye. An estranged sister, her
senile father, a pseudo-wealthy businessman, among others all
partake in a series of flirtations, fights and foolishness as Ellie
Dunn (Louahn Lowe) decides whether she wants to marry an older
businessman for money while Lady Hushabye (Margaret McCarley)
flightily flirts with every male visitor in the household.
Throughout the play, these characters jeer at each other and in
general agree that the Hushabye household is nothing close to
normal. The second act consists of a series of realizations by the
characters which is no doubt Shaw’s social commentary; by the end
of the second act, World War I planes begin to pass over the house
and the characters are finally given something important to talk
about.
The play’s first downfall appeared as soon as the dialogue
started and and the players spoke with noticeably fake accents.
This was extremely distinct as each actor continuously flowed in
and out of character, reciting lines in both a normal American
voice and the quasi-British one. As each character entered the
scene, and the plot progressed, the accents did not improve.
Instead, it seemed to get sloppier as characters started to speak
whole lines without any trace of the accent used in the first act.
Perhaps the players should not have even attempted to use the
English voice.
Further problems in the dialogue surfaced as some of the actors
sounded as though they were merely reciting lines and continuously
fumbled the order of words; this ruined the fluency of a few
important scenes in the script.
At times, the script called for the actors to use specific
timing in order to accomplish the intended comedic aspects, yet the
troupe in this production did not seem to have the chemistry
necessary for these type of theatrics.
However, one character stole every scene amongst these
line-reciting mannequins. McCarley, as Hesione Hushabye, was the
only actress capable of projecting a real character that the
audience could laugh at, relate to and feel a bond with. Her
physical comedy antics were well received by the audience and her
performance shone.
Though the acting left something to be desired, the stage,
scenery and lighting were notably impressive. The set design and
costumes were beautifully ornate and well done for this period
piece and the set changes were fluid and positioned in a timely
fashion during intermission and once during the second act.
But while the Knightsbridge set the stage for a solid production
of Shaw’s classic, without the impression that the actors actually
felt they were the characters they portrayed, there was no way that
the audience could be inducted into the world of the Hushabye
household.
THEATER: "Heartbreak House" runs through May 31 at the
Knightsbridge Theatre, 35 S. Raymond Ave., Old Town Pasadena.
Tickets are $10 for students. Call (626) 440-0821.
Knightsbridge Theater
(Left to right) David Rasner, Claire Benedek and Phil Oakley
star in "Heartbreak House."