Eliza Doolittle Comes to Life at the Pasadena Playhouse in Pygmalion
(courtesy of the production)
Pygmalion, by George Bernard Shaw, begins performances tonight at the Pasadena Playhouse. The play tells a story of a phonetics professor, Henry Higgins, who bets that he can turn a cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, into a lady, merely by altering her speech into flawless English and teaching her to behave properly. The ultimate test is for Eliza to pass as a duchess at an ambassador’s garden party. Despite its basic plot, the story explores language as a defining characteristic, class barriers, and the suppression of female independence.
Directed by Jessica Kubzansky, the play features Ellen Crawford as Mrs. Pearce, Stan Egi as Colonel Pickering, Alex Knox as Freddy, Mary Anne McGarry as Mrs. Higgins, Lynn Milgrim as Mrs. Eynsford-Hill, Carolyn Ratteray as Clara Eynsford-Hill, Bruce Turk as Henry Higgins, Paige Lindsey White as Eliza Doolittle, and Time Winters as Alfred Doolittle.
"George Bernard Shaw was really in some ways a feminist before that idea had made its way into the zeitgeist," said director Jessica Kubzansky, "and he is playing with such genius questions about whether or not transformation is as simple as giving someone new language, and whether or not transformation is liberation, or simply exchanging one cage for another."
Performances will run through April 12.
For tickets and more information, click here.
