Should we still be producing George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion in 2018? Well, if we went by Bedlam's current production at the Sheen Center, nah. The company, whose Hamlet is actually my favorite production of the play I've seen, typically does interesting, often subversive, work. It may not always be successful but they always seem to have a vision. However, they simply do not make a case for Pygmalion with their straight-forward production. I'm not going to mince words; Pygmalion is incredibly sexist. Uncomfortably so. It is not subversive in the least. There's no satire. Sure, you can argue it's a product of its time but it can stay in its time. I think it has endured because of the Lerner and Lowe musical version, My Fair Lady . Sure, Shaw is very esteemed (even if he did hate Shakespeare) and his work has endured on its own but I'm not so sure we need to see more productions of Pygmalion . Higgins' misogyny is reprehensible, and as a woman in 2...
Theater reviews and commentary by Alyssa Maher.