Candida – Review of 2024 Shaw Festival Production

The Shaw Festival has ten main productions and a few other entertainments but only one play by the author after whom it is named. The explanation may be as simple as a play by Shaw equals too many empty seats. Or it may reflect the quality of the productions not attracting sufficient audiences. Either way, calling it the Shaw Festival and producing only one of his plays for the season is no homage to the festival or the playwright.
This year’s choice is Candida, an early play by Shaw, staged at the 305-seat Royal George Theatre. It is a traditional production to which Director Severn Thompson adds several modern songs including the music of Never on Sunday. I have no idea why.
The plot of Candida is about an intelligent, attractive and strong woman, Candida (Sochi Fried), who is married to Rev. James Morell (Sanjay Talwar), a socialist Anglican pastor, and is pursued by Eugene Marchbanks (Johnathan Sousa), a romantic poet.
In the end Candida must choose between her husband and the poet and the two bid for her as if she were on the auction block. But before we get there Shaw will deal with the role of the woman and wife in late 19h century England and social and political issues. Rev. Morell is a popular speaker on socialism and religion. His wife is devoted to his care and the success of his career and despite his illusions about what he does, she takes care of everything.
The capitalist issue is illustrated by Candida’s father Mr. Burgess (Ric Reid), a factory owner who is paying his workers starvation wages and is not above chicanery.
Marchbanks rocks the placid life of the Morell’s with his perceptiveness about the pastor’s character and with his love for Candida in whom he sees a strong woman who is not allowed to achieve her potential. He falls madly in love with her.
The play leads to the climactic scene where we get a concise view of the pastor’s character. He is a windbag who can make speeches and not much else. Candida supports he ego and allows him to maintain his illusion of being a man of strength who loves his wife.
Marchbanks is emotional and passionate about his poetry, but he sees what the pastor is and appreciates the strength and beauty of Candida’s character. I will not disclose her choice just in case you have not seen the play.
The best performance is given by Fried who dominates the play. She knows her husband’s needs and illusions as well as the poet’s passion and strength. She makes the right choice without sacrificing anything.
Sanjay and Sousa present good contrasting characters as the apparently strong pastor and the weak poet. Reid is a fine capitalist and Gabriella Sundar Singh steps in as Morell’s secretary replacing Claire Julien in the role of Miss Proserpine, Morell’s secretary. Damien Atkins plays the curate Lexy Mill.
The set by Michelle Tracey represents an Anglican rectory with bookshelves at the back, an office on the left and a seating area on the right. The set eschews the heavy, dark atmosphere of some Victorian interiors but it is a long way from making the production more than a run of the mill. Fried’s fine performance and her beautiful blue dress by Costume Designer Ming Wood give a bright aspect to the play. But it is not enough to make up for the stolid performances of the others.
Director Thompson gives us an indifferent production where a lighter touch with humour and better pacing may have eliminated some of the cobwebs inherent in the text. Candida is an interesting play that deserves to be produced but Thompson failed to find a better way of expressing the script.
Candida by Bernard Shaw continues in repertory until October 11, 2024, at the Royal George Theatre, Shaw Festival, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. www.shawfest.com

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