Class and Cowardice Revealed
by Jim Murchison
On this evening the weather network was reporting that we might end up seeing as much Tempest as Arms and the Man, but as luck would have it, though there was some momentary spitting I went home completely dry, unlike those rainless days of oppressive humidity that leave you coated in a layer of wet air and your own sweat.
This production combines the use of Commedia dell'arte and ballet with naturalism. Director Andy Massingham understands physical comedy extremely well, so the physicality of the production executed by this balanced cast reinforces Shaw's themes of class, war, diplomacy and courtship.
Phillipa Leslie who plays Raina is extensively trained in ballet. She uses moves that would provoke gasps and sighs of pleasure in a pas de deux, that in this play expose convention and artifice of feigned sincerity to comic effect. There is a moment when Raina's facade is exposed and she speaks and moves absolutely naturally that is profoundly effective.
