A Woman's Right to Choose at Two River Theater

The Two River Theatre Company’s production of George Bernard Shaw’s Candida will open on Saturday March 26 with preview performances opening Tuesday. The play is directed by David Staller, Founder and Artistic Director of the Gingold Theatrical Group, the organization behind Project Shaw. 

Staller, a bonafide Shavian (a Shaw devotee) set out in 2006 to produce and present a monthly public reading of the Irish playwright’s theatrical works, 60 in all, at the famed Player’s Club at Gramercy Park in New York. That canon's work was completed in 2009. Featured in the cast are Andrew Boyer, Will Bradley, Jordan Coughtry, Sue Cremin, Elizabeth Morton and Steven Skybell.

TRT Artistic Director John Dias called Candida “one of the great pieces in the canon of World Literature.” Dias, who joined the company in August of 2010, played no role in creating this year’s production schedule, that includes Candida, but he remarked that its inclusion is evidence that “this community and this audience is hungry for great theater from some of the greatest writers to pen plays.”

This is not the first time that TRT has breathed theatrical life into a Shaw play.  The company previously produced Misalliance, Arms and the Man and Heartbreak House. 

The play, Dias assert “sits in the season in a very nice way because it is both great writing in terms of its depth of human nature and also because it is a really fun and funny comedy.”

Candida, which was first published in 1898, portrays a Victorian love triangle of sorts. The central characters are clergyman James Morell, his wife Candida and a youthful poet, Eugene Marchbanks, who tries to win Candida's affections. The play questions Victorian notions of love and marriage.  The two men duel over Candida, each proposing their right to love her in their way, each supposing their position best suits her.  Neither actually consults with Candida, until the choice is laid before her and she must resolve the issue and the play with her decision. 

Though the story is dominated by male posturing, Shaw, tipped the balance of power to the female lead character.  Shaw was a socially conscientious writer, who penned works that addressed prevailing socal issues and examinations of institutions, including education, marriage, religion, government, health care and class privilege. Dias said it is one of many reasons to respect and reprise Shaw’s work.

“He writes about a woman’s sense of power and place,” Dias said. “In this work, Shaw is saying that women aren’t defined by the men in their lives.  They define themselves and they make their own choices.”  And while women’s roles and power in both society and personal relationships have evolved since Shaw wrote Candida, Dias believes the message of the play is “still true and potent today.”

Performances of Candida begin on March 22 and run through April 10. The opening night performance is March 26t at 8pm. This production is sponsored in part by Two River’s Education Partner, Monmouth University, and Rumson Fair Haven Bank and Trust.