There are two things I vividly remember about seeing my first production of George Bernard Shaw's "Misalliance" at the Utah Shakespearean Festival in 1991 - the stereo surround-sound replicating the buzzing of an airplane circling for an emergency landing and "Gunner," the agitated young lad hiding inside a portable Turkish bath on stage.
The crashing plane must have been a real drawing card when "Misalliance" was first produced in 1909. Shaw wrote it only six years after the world's first manned airplane flight.For the Cedar City production, shadows behind the vast, glass windows of the Tarleton family's solarium provided a hint of the about-to-crash, two-seat plane (I guess aeroplane would be more fitting, considering the Edwardian setting).
But it was Gunner who nearly stole the show - or, at least, intermission. At the end of Act One the nervous little guy was hiding inside the newly unboxed Turkish bath . . . and he remained there throughout the intermission.
I asked Brad DePlanche, who was playing the role, later the next afternoon if he was actually sitting inside the box all during intermission and he said that yes, he was. There was no trap door and no way out, so he always kept a book and a flashlight inside the box to entertain himself before the second act began.
Now, I don't know what director Charles Morey has in mind for either the airplane or Gunner in the upcoming Pioneer Theatre Company production of "Misalliance" (March 19-April 8 on the Lees Main Stage of Pioneer Memorial Theatre) - and I really don't want to know. Not knowing is part of the anticipation and fun, especially with PTC, where the scenery is always spectacular.
Shaw (frequently referred to as simply GBS) generated a prodigious amount of material in his lifetime, which spanned an era from five years prior to the Civil War to five years after the first atomic bomb was dropped - 1856-1950. During his 94 years, he wrote 55 plays, 12 novels, a half-dozen huge and comprehensive books on such issues as politics and the economy, and even inspired two volumes of love letters.
While many, including myself, tend to think of Shaw and another of his contemporaries, Oscar Wilde, as British playwrights, they were both, in fact, natives of Ireland.
"Shaw is Irish and has very much an Irish temperament," noted Morey during a recent interview. "In order to write as Shaw did you have to stand slightly outside the society, but not be of it."
Shaw enjoyed tweaking prim and proper British society, but many of his early ideas, which shocked theater patrons in his heyday (such works as "Mrs. Warren's Profession," "Man and Superman," "The Doctor's Dilemma" and "Arms and the Man"), are considered mainstream today.
Morey notes that while there have been American writers who tackled comedies of manners in the American tradition (such as Kaufman and Hart to a certain degree), American theatergoers' temperaments tend to be more sentimental - "You Can't Take It With You" as opposed to "Misalliance."
"But the theater is all the richer for it," Morey believes.
His cast is "a nice combination of old favorites and people who are brand new to us. They're very funny and hard-working and the key to it is that they love the material," he said.
For newcomer Tom Dunlop, who plays Gunner, the PTC stint marks his fourth production of "Misalliance." In previous versions, including one just last fall at the Pearl Theater, off Broadway, he's played Bentley Summerhays (Hypatia Tarleton's fiance) and Joseph Percival, Bentley's friend, but never Gunner.
And longtime PTC performer, Richard Mathews (Lord Summerhays) did a production of "Misalliance" about 15 years ago.
Two of the most familiar names in the cast are Max Robinson as business tycoon John Tarleton and Anne Stewart Mark as Lina Szczepanowska, a liberated Polish acrobat.
Others include Celia Howard as Mrs. Tarleton (seen here last as Dotty in "Noises Off"), Penny Balfour as bored and aggressively flirtatious Hypatia; Ezra Barnes as stuffy Johnny Tarleton Jr.; Dustin Longstreth as Bentley, Lord Summerhays' tantrum-throwing son, and Warren Kelley as stalwart aviator Percival.
Guest artist Peter Harrison is designing the scenery, with resident designers Peter L. Willardson, Carol Wells-Day and Cynthia L. McCourt handling the lighting, costumes and hair/makeup, respectively.
- TICKETS, ETC. - Performances of "Misalliance" will be 7:30 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and at 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays from March 19 through April 5 on the Lees Main Stage of Pioneer Memorial Theatre, 300 S. 1340 East (Broadway and University). Single tickets range from $12 to $30. All seats are reserved. To purchase tickets in advance, call the Pioneer Theatre Company box office at 581-6961. Group discounts are available.
There will be a free, post-performance discussion following the Thursday evening performance on April 3, when audience members are invited to join with actors and staff for a question-and-answer session.