Pygmalion at the Old Vic

The timing of this excellent production of Bernard Shaw's play could not be more prescient. The two month run coinciding with sex scandals in the news - the play is recast for the modern era. The rubbing up together of gender and class in a play written in 1913, then later adapted for film in the 1930s, could not be clearer. The play has bred a number of variations over the years from the My Fair Lady musical, starring Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison, to later offshoots like Educating Rita and Pretty Woman. But director Richard Jones production brings the whole thing bang up to date. The timeless nature of the content is testimony to Shaw's vision and the slowness of society to change. Bertie Carvel is brilliant as the mercurial, eccentric Professor Henry Higgins. Those who last saw him tread the boards of the Old Vic, as Donald Trump in the 47th have to pinch themselves. Rushing around with a constant nervous energy, the Higgins character is reminiscent at times of John Cleese as Basil Fawlty. Though, in terms of appearance with stoop and red cardigan, images of Monty Don and Richard Briers as Tom Good in 1970s comedy the Good Life, merge in the imagination. Patsy Ferran is equally good, brilliantly dramatising the metamorphosis from working class flower girl to middle class ornament. Her comic timing is superb. There is another excellent performance from John Marquez as Eliza's dustman father, Alfred. A man satisfied in his world as immoral working class rogue, who betters himself materially but also loses himself to middle class morality. It is the working class who come out on top in this production, with Eliza turning the tables on Higgins and her father triumphing in material terms at least. There are many currents running through this play, from misogyny and discrimination to outright exploitation. Jones production brings the play right up to date in a very contemporary way. But as ever one is left to wonder at the perceptive insight of Shaw on society. It also poses the question as to how much has really changed in society relating to class and gender over the last century? To 28th October - oldvictheatre.com