Pygmalion

Undoubtedly one of the best, and funniest, and most damningly exposing of early 20th century sexual discriminatory attitudes, Shaw’s masterpiece was last night reduced to the level of farce. Alistair McGowan was hopeless in every sense, reducing the role of Professor Higgins to that of a petulant brat with his fidgety body language, mugging and – well, simply hammy performance. Whether this was due to bad direction or bad acting matters not, it simply did not work and left the rest of the cast to drag the production up to a standard that made me return for the second half. Thank heavens for the cool dignity of Rula Lenska’s excellent performance, the dexterity of Jamie Forman and a great comedic performance from Rachel Barry as Eliza – without them this production would be in the gutter from whence Miss Doolittle hails.

Theatre Royal Brighton, 17 March 2014

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