Liz Lauren
Mayhem is unleashed after Hesione Hushabye (Tracy Michelle Arnold) invites Ellie Dunn (Phoebe Gonzalez) over for a party.
You never know what to expect in the topsy-turvy world of Heartbreak House.
The self-absorbed characters in George Bernard Shaw’s drawing room comedy — at American Players Theatre through Oct. 5 — match wits, vie for love and attention, spout philosophy and grapple with big ideas. They are channeling the Irish playwright’s notions about class and power, sex and marriage, capitalism and resistance, war and peace.
In the wrong hands, Heartbreak House could become an overburdened and weighty mess. But Aaron Posner (who adapted and directed the show) creates a sparkling and nuanced rendition, featuring some of APT’s finest performers.
The play, which takes place in “three succinct acts,” according to the pre-show announcement, is set among the London upper class in World War I. When Ellie Dunn (Phoebe González) arrives as a guest at the house, the only person there to greet her is a servant, Nurse Guinness (a delightful Sarah Day). The nurse has a twinkle in her eye as she welcomes young Ellie to join the parade of eccentricities.
We meet the family patriarch, Captain Shotover (Jonathan Smoots), an elderly inventor who hoards dynamite and is trying to create a “psychic ray” while reaching the “seventh degree of consciousness.” The captain uses his age and possible mental lapses to confound those around him. One of the captain’s daughters, Lady Ariadne Utterword (a riveting Colleen Madden) flutters in after being in Australia for 23 years, and her father appears to not recognize her. Ariadne is impeccably dressed and tightly wound, looking for (and finding) slights in every interaction. She clashes and competes with her Bohemian sister, Hesione Hushabye (Tracy Michelle Arnold), who slinks in, all silky and sensuous, perching barefoot on top of the sofa like a cat.
Hesione has invited Ellie over to dissuade her from marrying the wealthy capitalist Boss Mangan (John Taylor Phillips). But Ellie is really in love with a dashing adventurer, who turns out to be Hesione’s lying husband, Hector (Jim DeVita, mustachioed and reaching new comic peaks). And that’s just a taste of the shenanigans that take place in the madcap world of the Shotover house. Heartbreak House has more plot turns, love triangles, changes of heart, and surprises than three ordinary plays.
The show features excellent original music composed by Andre Pluess, and a lavish set (Andrew Boyce) and costumes (Rachel Laritz) worthy of Chekhov (whom Shaw emulated; the original subtitle of Heartbreak House was “a Fantasia in the Russian Manner on English Themes”).
When The New York Times reviewed the Broadway opening of Heartbreak House in 1920, it wrote: "Mr. Shaw on this occasion has more than usual to say and takes twice as long as usual to say it." But Posner’s adaptation and the company’s superlative acting make those three acts sail by — as these delightful, flawed characters and meaty ideas keep the audience engaged throughout.
