Distant Thunder

By R.C.

HEARTBREAK HOUSE

by George Bernard Shaw

"Behold my Lear," proclaimed Shaw, with his usual modesty, of this melancholy farce. Not for him the inevitable comparisons with Chekhov and Congreve. No, he would recast Lear as Captain Shotover, a wily old man of the sea, sensitive to every political current, each distant drumroll of thunder on the cloudless eve of the Great War. Surrounding the Captain are his two bewitching daughters, with their foolish suitors, and one young woman, Ellie Dunn, who is wise and innocent enough to read the Captain's prophetic mind. In Shaw's Lear, Cordelia has a divine madness too.

Last spring in London, John Dexter directed Rex Harrison and, as the sisters, Diana Rigg and Rosemary Harris in a production so dazzlingly elegant that the final, abrupt catastrophe seemed a nightmare from which the descending curtain would deliver the audience. Now Harrison, a strangely serene fatalist of a patriarch, has come to Broadway in Anthony Page's more earthbound revival. These are not Olympians playing at mortal games but overage children playing blindman's buff as the apocalypse closes in on them. Still, they are Shaw's creatures, and in this splendid, savory play they can still beguile. As the daughters, Harris (who takes Rigg's role here) has a madcap-heiress presence, charming herself no less than the others, and Dana Ivey is the daffy dowager queen--Maggie Smith on her way to becoming Katharine Hepburn.

In the pivotal role of Ellie, who must switch from virginal intensity to mandarin self-possession in the flick of an entr'acte, Amy Irving is a revelation. Best known as a movie actress (Carrie, Yentl), she commands the stage with her dusky voice and searing stare. Fifty years ago, she could have been Shaw's next heroine; now she can be Broadway's.

--R.C. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.