Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Upcoming: Misalliance by George Bernard Shaw, Austin Playhouse, January 22 - February 21


Click for ALT review, February 3


Received directly:

Austin Playhouse presents

Misalliance

by George Bernard Shaw

January 22 - February 21
Thursday - Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 5 p.m.
NEW: matinee added for Saturday, February 20, 2 p.m.
Prices: $26 Thursdays & Fridays, $28 Saturdays & Sundays

$35 Opening Night, January 22
All student tickets are half-price
Tickets/Information: (512) 476-0084
Austin Playhouse, 3601 S. Congress, Bldg. C

Austin Playhouse proudly presents Shaw’s delightful comedy. Misalliance is a fast-paced, witty comedy that highlights the great characters, sparkling dialogue, and energetic humor for which Shaw is justly renowned. A whirlwind of characters from different social classes and professions including an underwear magnate, an ambassador, a Polish acrobat, and a socialist clerk, careen and carom off each other during the course of one afternoon at an English country estate.

Misalliance was written in 1909 during England’s brief Edwardian period. The Edwardian era was smashed right between the expansive Victorian period and the modern age that followed the Great War. This clash of old and new is central to the play as parents clash with children, capitalism clashes with socialism, and modern romance and gender equality clashes with traditional courtship and gender roles.

The violence of Shaw’s argument against stifling English propriety is given physical life in a large number of onstage acts of destruction including fistfights, gunplay, broken crockery, and a plane crash that all threaten to disrupt the genteel atmosphere.


Misalliance presented a shocking array of critiques of English society (many of which are still relevant and highly amusing today) and broke with the traditional popular parlor comedies. Its initial run was cut short due to the death of King Edward in 1910. It wasn’t revived again until the 1930’s. Today, Shaw’s whirlwind debate by characters is renowned as one of his most enduring and delightful plays.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com. . . .

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