Dear Liar

Theatre Three’s brand new series in Theatre Too!, The Spotlight Series, continues with Dear Liar by James Kilty and based on the letters of George Bernard Shaw and Mrs. Patrick Campbell, starring Terry Vandivort and Sally Vahle.

He was an outspoken and witty playwright. She was a vivacious and talented actress. He called her “a great enchantress” and she told him, “…when you were quite a little boy somebody ought to have said ‘hush’ just once.” For forty years, George Bernard Shaw and Mrs. Patrick Campbell shared an intriguing and fiery relationship. Although Shaw was married and Campbell eventually remarried, the respect they had for each other and the passion they shared never dwindled. Their relationship produced an extraordinary series of letters, nearly lost during World War II, but preserved in this intimate play. The letters reveal the very private personalities and love of these two very public people. George Bernard Shaw admits to falling in love with Mrs. Patrick Campbell within thirty seconds of meeting her and Mrs. Patrick Campbell admits to being too old to play one of her most famous roles, Eliza Doolittle in Shaw’s Pygmalion. In their letters, they convey the great joy of a successful show like Pygmalion and the great despair of losing loved ones. The letters become the source of argument between the two lovers when Campbell is asked to write a book and include some of her private correspondence. However, they reconcile and Shaw even returns some of the letters to her. In one of her last letters, Campbell promises, “We will meet in heaven, you will bow, and I will curtsey, and the angels will say to each other: ‘…they did not snatch at joy and spoil the winged world.'”

Week One Performances:
Thursday, February 3, 2005 at 7:30 p.m., Friday, February 4, 2005 at 8:00 p.m., Saturday, February 5, 2005 at 8:00 p.m., and Sunday, February 6, 2005 at 2:30 p.m.

Week Two Performances:
Thursday, February 10 at 7:30 p.m., Friday, February 11, 2005 at 8:00 p.m., Saturday, February 12, 2005 at 8:00 p.m., and Sunday, February 13, 2005 at 2:30 p.m.