"Widower's Houses" at Aurora Theatre Company

Aurora Theatre Company photo

I'm afraid life has been getting in the way of blogging, and I'm a bit behind. We caught Aurora's Widower's Houses just before it closed, and then a couple of weeks have passed, so I'm afraid it's not a show you can catch. As such, I might be a bit briefer than usual.

I really wanted to see this show, in part because I quite like the work of the playwright, George Bernard Shaw, and also because it featured a couple of my favorite local actors. So we had to scramble to pick up tickets for one of the last shows in the extended run.

The Play

Widower's Houses was Shaw's first foray into playwriting, and though it's not quite as well developed as some of his later works, it still has the cutting social satire that was his hallmark. Originally started as a collaboration with another writer, the play was meant to be a light comedy, pleasant diversion for a Victorian audience not seeking to be challenged. But seeing the subversive text that Shaw wrote for the first couple of acts, the shocked collaborator quit the project. Some seven years later, Shaw completed the work on his own and it got produced.

The play revolves around a couple of traveling Englishmen of the upper class, Dr. Trench and his companion Cokane. Cokane has to keep coaching Trench to behave like a proper gentleman. They encounter a wealthy family on their travels, a Mr. Sartorius and his daughter, Blanche. Trench and Blanche immediately hit it off, and Trench proposes marriage. But Sartorius puts conditions on the match, insisting he will only approve if Trench contacts his family and gets their assurance that they will accept Blanche as one of their own.

The dark secret in Sartorius's closet is that he's not a gentleman, though he is quite wealthy. But he was born poor and earned his money himself, including (we later learn) by managing investments from Trench and his family. The real problem is that his business isn't all that respectable: he is a tenement slumlord, and quite a strict and uncompromising one at that.

Only after Trench receives the acceptances of his gentle relatives does he learn the truth of Sartorius's business and fortune, and he resolves that he won't take any of it or allow Blanche to do so either. But Blanche does not want to live on the meager income Trench receives, and Sartorius does not approve of his treatment of Trench's high-minded attitude about his business or his treatment of his employees.

Which brings us to the best-named character, Sartorius's collection agent, Mr. Lickcheese. Lickcheese does the dirty work of twisting the arms of the impoverished occupants of the Sartorius tenements. But he and the boss have a falling out, and Lickcheese is sacked. But he will return, gloriously, with Cokane in tow, for the culmination of the plot.

The play is really wonderfully timed, as you can easily sense the desperation in Sartorius to be accepted by proper society, despite his rather unsavory business. And his thoughtful, articulate defense of his means and achievements are really thought-provoking in our modern age of homelessness and precarious living amongst great wealth. Though the start is a bit slow, it builds well, and the second and third acts are really quite excellent writing.

The Production

Lots of terrific acting here. Warren David Keith as Sartorius is quite wonderful, without overplaying at all. His studied intensity is really effective in the close confines of Aurora's thrust stage configuration. Megan Trout as his very refined, yet rather clueless and vain daughter Blanche, brings to mind certain other children of wealth and privilege who presume the mantle of respectability that their parents crave, but know they don't quite deserve. The setting in Victorian England makes the class distinction a bit clearer than it might be in a modern play.

The always-strong Michael Gene Sullivan manages to bring out the ridiculousness of Cokane's upper-class obsessions without resorting to clowning. Dan Hoyle as Trench was a bit stiff in what should have been his comfortable bits early on, goofing around to annoy Cokane. But his delivery wasn't comfortable there. His later acting, and particularly some of his non-verbal work later with Trout, was outstanding, though.

Howard Swain as Lickcheese was extremely effective. A bit hard to pick up with his thick Cockney drawl at first, but the subtlety with which he defers to Sartorius and wheedles Trench are marvelous bits. When he later turns up as quite a different-seeming man, the gloating is wonderful.

And a final word for Sarah Mitchell who gets the dual serving roles as the German waiter in the opening act and the English maid back home. In both she manages to be both comical and poignant, interacting with the wealthy swells who basically care not a whit for the serving class. The indignant reactions of the waiter combined with his German precision make for some great moments. And the poor, trodden maid just can't win. When she closed the play mouthing an obscenity at the departed homeowner, the person sitting next to me whispered to her seatmate, "That just made the whole play!" The broad comic strokes of the working class made a nice counterpoint to the word play and thought-provoking dialogue of the rest of the play. Kudos to director Joy Carlin for letting Mitchell run free with the non-verbal parts of her roles.

The Bottom Line

I really like this script, and the acting was first-rate, almost throughout. The staging was fairly uninspired, though. Aurora usually goes a bit more for atmosphere, and this set was pretty spare. My favorite touch was the revealing of Sartorius's library behind the panels of the beer garden during the first intermission set change. But really, it was up to the cast and the script to carry the evening, and both were up to the task.

I wish I could still recommend that you go see the show, because it was well worth it. The frank discussion of why we can't provide "decent" housing for the poor is clearly an issue that affluent societies have long struggled with. Shaw gives a strong voice to both sides, and keeps the interest up in what is otherwise a fairly talky play.

Overall, really good.