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| Candida by George Bernard Shaw Directed by Mort Paterson an ActorsNET of Bucks County Production October 28 - November 13, 2011 Candida, a classic comedy of the modern English-language theater, was written in 1894 by George Bernard Shaw, the prolific Irish-born dramatist who became one of the most widely-produced playwrights of the twentieth century. Set in London's East End during the Victorian era, Candida is about the domestic turmoil that ensues when an impetuous young poet comes between a progressive-minded clergyman and his charismatic wife. Though the story is centered on a classic romantic triangle, the questions it raises about the nature of love, fidelity, and the imagination of the artist are as provocative and enduring as ever, thanks to Shaw's vigorous wit and argumentative spirit. The cast includes: 
Carol Thompson as Candida George Hartpence as Reverend James Mavor Morell | 
Ray Fallon as Eugene Marchbanks Susan Blair as Prossy |  | David Schwarz as Mr. Burgess Fred Halperin as Lexy |
YouTube video links (just click on the photos below to access the YouTube video) Packet Publications' Time Off, critic Bob Brown notes that The NET has "near-perfect ensemble" performing George Bernard Shaw's Candida. He writes, "All the actors in this production, directed by seasoned professional Mort Paterson, are pitch perfect. Ms. Thompson and Mr. Hartpence, familiar in regional theatre productions, play particularly well off each other. Ms. Thompson's Candida is a woman confidently in control." Mr. Brown has high praise for the rest of the cast -- Ray Fallon, David Swartz, Susan Blair and Fred Halperin -- as well. As for the play, Mr. Brown writes, "Candida is a lighthearted, amusing probe of our assumptions about love and marriage, and about the effects of impulsive attraction.... This is a very entertaining production, well handled all around by a talented cast and production crew." Dramatis Personae:  | | Candida - Candida is Morell's wife and mother of their two young children. Shaw explains that "she possesses the double charm of youth and motherhood. Her ways are those of a woman who has found that she can always manage people by engaging their affection, and who does so frankly and instinctively without the smallest scruple." She deeply loves her husband Morell, but is quite taken with Eugene Marchbanks' naïve, poetic nature. "This comes of James teaching me to think for myself, and never to hold back out of fear of what other people may think of me."
| |  | | The Reverend James Mavor Morell - Morell is a mature man, well-established in life, and husband to Candida. He is a Christian Socialist and clergyman of the Church of England. Shaw describes him as "a vigorous, genial, popular man of forty, robust and good-looking, full of energy, with pleasant, hearty, considerate manners, and a sound unaffected voice, which he uses with the clean athletic articulation of a practiced orator, and with a wide range and perfect command of expression." "These people forget I am a man: they think I am a talking machine to be turned on for their pleasure every evening of my life."
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| | Eugene Marchbanks - Shaw states that "he is a strange, shy youth of eighteen, slight, effeminate, with a delicate childish voice, and a hunted and tormented expression and shrinking manner that shew the painful sensitive of very swift and acute apprehensiveness in youth." This young poet is madly in love with Candida, an affliction that torments him throughout the play. "We all go about longing for love: it is the first need of our natures, the first prayer of our hearts; but we dare not utter our longing: we are too shy."
| |  | | Mr. Burgess - Shaw states that Candida's father has been "made coarse and sordid by the compulsory selfishness of petty commerce, and later on softened into sluggish bumptiousness by overfeeding and commercial success. He is a vulgar ignorant guzzling man." Burgess is a businessman always keeping an eye out for his own advancement. "When I pay a man, an' 'is livin depends on me, I keep him in 'is place."
| |  | | The Reverend Alexander "Lexy" Mill - Lexy is a young curate chosen by Morell as his assistant. He is a well-intentioned, enthusiastic novice. He idolizes Morell, and tries to be just like him, and although he isn't very successful at it, he has won Morell over by his "doglike" devotion. "I try to follow his example, not to imitate him."
| |  | | Miss Proserpine "Prossy" Garnett - Shaw tells us that she is "a brisk little woman of about 30, of the lower middle class... notably pert and quick of speech, and not very civil in her manner, but sensitive and affectionate." She is secretly in love with Morell, and jealous of how he constantly gushes over Candida. "It's enough to drive anyone out of their senses to hear a woman raved about in that absurd manner merely because she's got good hair, and a tolerable figure." |
| Plot Summary | The play begins in October of 1894 in the drawing room of St. Dominic's parsonage in the East End of London. Reverend James Morell, a Christian Socialist minister, discusses his busy schedule with his efficient typist, Miss Proserpine Garnett ("Prossy"). Burgess, Morell's father-in-law, a successful but unscrupulous businessman from a working class background, visits the Morell home for the first time in three years. While Burgess cannot convince Morell that he has changed his nature, he impresses Morell with the news that he has raised the wages of his underpaid workers. Morell's wife Candida returns home accompanied by the 18 year-old poet Eugene Marchbanks, whom Morell has recently rescued from the streets. Once alone with Morell, Marchbanks reveals that he is in love with Candida. His nervousness fades as he speaks of Candida's beauty and how Morell does not deserve her. As Act One ends, the Reverend Morell, shaken by Marchbanks' accusation, nonetheless insists that the young man stay for lunch. At the start of Act Two, Marchbanks is left alone with the typist Prossy. While she tries to work, he speaks of the plight of the poet and attempts to get her to confess her ardor for Morell. Flustered by Eugene's insinuations, she strikes out instead at Burgess, who has wandered in, accusing him of being a "silly old fathead." Meanwhile, Candida senses her husband's growing discomfort on the subject of Marchbanks and pulls him aside to talk. She tries to tease him but ends up reinforcing his insecurities about their marriage and his vocation. Candida suggests that his popularity as a speaker has more to do with his personal charm than his message. Frustrated, Morell considers canceling his evening's speaking appointment. He reconsiders, though, and decides to leave Candida alone with Marchbanks as a kind of test. At the top of Act Three, Marchbanks and Candida near the end of their evening together - an evening spent in poetry reading. Seeing that Candida is bored with the verse, Marchbanks is on the verge of declaring his love when Morell arrives home. Morell and Marchbanks size each other up, and Morell insists that Candida choose between the two of them. Candida takes up the challenge, asking each man to make his case. They do, and Candida, in a surprising turn of events, demonstrates that Morell is the weaker of the two, and therefore more deserving of her love. Marchbanks, realizing his future lies elsewhere, leaves Morell and Candida behind. |
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