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Major Barbara
By George Bernard Shaw
Directed by Kerstin Broockmann
At Rogue Theater
5123 N. Clark Street
Chicago, IL
Call 773-561-5893, tickets $15 - $12 students
Fridays 7 Saturdays at 8 pm
Sundays at 3 pm
Running time is 2 hours, 25 minutes with intermission
Through July 8, 2007
Inept accents and poor diction doom Shaw drama
Rogue Theater is badly in need of a dialect coach as evidenced by the poor diction and slurred speech that found several players running their words together so fast that I had a hard time understanding many key sentences. The English accents were all over the place contributing to the chaos. The pace and cadence by most of the actors bleakly demonstrates that most of the performers didn’t have a grasp of Shaw’s Major Barbara script. Laughs and many of the biting dialogue became bland with improper emphasis leading to a loss of much of Shaw’s biting satire.
The over emphasis of the English accents led to many of the actor’s voices going into such a high register that the vocals became shrill and irritating. Add the over acting by Christopher Dennis as Bill Walker and Charles Lomax, Daniel Hickey’s Stephen and the many flubbed lines by Laura Shatkus as Lady Britomart and Major Barbara is a fatally flawed show. The poor acting found many of the characters being portrayed in a cartoonist manner.
Only Nate White as Andrew Undershaft has any idea how to pronounce Shaw’s dialogue. He is articulate and understands Shaw’s meanings. Too bad he is alone here. If the actors would slow down a count or two and forget the fake accents, maybe we be able to grasp what they are trying to say. Nothing is worse than unintelligible dialogue. Better to read Shaw than become irritated with this production.
Not Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date Reviewed: May 20, 2007
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