The Chamber Theatre has brought Shaw's epic multi-part work, "Back To Methuselah" to Milwaukee with help from Marquette University. It might have been enough for the Chamber to have the only annual Shaw Festival in the United States. Certainly, Shaw has enough plays to keep the festival producing his plays for some time. Mounting the five substantial one-act plays that make up "Back to Methuselah" is a major effort and something of a risk, as long works often make audiences nervous.

"Back To Methuselah" -- which runs through Sun., May 6 -- is a most amusing and thought provoking work that quite fairly demonstrates Shaw's comic genius and his considerable reputation as an Irish savant. The work is being presented in two segments by the Chamber; one segment by Marquette University Department of Performing Arts; and another segment, a short presented by In Tandem.

There is one day set for the performance of all five one-acts with arrangements for lunch and supper. There are ample opportunities for audiences to attend some or all of the plays in the series over a number of days. Call the box office at (414) 291-7800 to schedule your times to enjoy this rare opportunity.

Performance A consists of "In The Beginning" and "The Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas." Performance B, performance C and the Shaw short will be reviewed separately.

I made a point of seeing the plays in sequence but came away convinced that the order could be shuffled with no loss in comprehension. Each play is quite complete in itself and one soon begins to recognize the characters that reappear whether in or out of sequence. Moreover, the projections setting the times and places establish when and where the action takes place.

"In the Beginning" is Shaw's take on the Garden of Eden. The date 4004 B.C. is Shaw's first wry joke as he gives us his own take on the ancient tale of creation.

Adam and Eve are as interesting as one would expect our first parents to be. However, Cain, played by David Cecsarini, in a hair-do quite like Attila the Hun, is wonderfully over the top. The conflict between the farmers and the warriors is starkly laid out and we have a sense that things are not going to go smoothly. I rather liked Shaw's take on why and how Abel provoked his brother to commit murder.

In "The Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas," Shaw advances to what was his contemporaneous era just after The Great War. The Brothers have a theory that everyone with sufficient will power can live to be three hundred years old. While everyone else regards this as a silly idea, Conrad swears that it will happen.

Shaw quite deliberately sets this play in a conventional English domestic setting (quite well to do, of course.) The ideas exchanged in Shaw's inimitable dialogue are quite extraordinary although some of the characters seem quite conventional. His politicians are just as fatuous as ours and just as venal. His maid is as ordinary as anyone played by the redoubtable Jane Hannemann. Drew Brhel is very funny as Joyce Burge. Richard Halverson is gorgeous in his frock coat and expounds his theory in lucid terms. David Cecsarini assumes the role of Conrad Barnabas still with elements of Cain. Mary Macdonald Kerr is quite fetching as the young Eve. Gerald Nugent seems pretty conventional as the Reverend Haslam after we've seen his Adam but he will bear watching. Ruth Schudson plays the Serpent and the Elder Eve. One suspects she could have convinced us as the young Eve at the same time without too great a strain.

Check out the talented worthies who designed the sets, the costumes, the lights and the sound. Give full marks to the stage managers since this is a huge job. Certainly Montgomery Davis has made a heroic decision when he decided to stage "Back To Methuselah" for the first time in over 25 years in the U.S. His knowledge of the work enabled him to go right to the core of this epic and bring it to the stage in a clear and exciting staging.

If you have any reservations about committing yourself to several hours of George Bernard Shaw, start with "Performance B -- The Thing Happens" on the Cabot Stage of the Broadway Theatre Center. You will be jumping into the middle of Shaw's magnum opus but having seen the heat of the action, part A and part C will not only be easier to follow but your appetite should be whetted for all of Methuselah that you can get.

First of all, the acting is superb and worth more than the price of admission. Paul Boesing plays President Burge-Lubin with a carefully crafted slightly ridiculous English figurehead. He is rather more animated than the other characters with the exception of David Cecsarini's Barnabas. Cecsarini's Barnabas is an officious and petulant child as opposed to Boesing who plays the president as a very amiable but immature clown. Contrasting with these two characters, Drew Brhel plays a cabinet minister called Confucius with a grave and serious mien. Gerald Nugent plays the Archbishop of York with the gravitas one would expect of someone over two hundred years old.

But the most awesome figure is Jane Hanneman as Mrs. Lutestring. She flows or seems to float about the stage with a minimum of effort. Her physical presence is somewhere between an elderly and economic schoolteacher and a venerable mother superior. While her face is a magnet for one's eyes, her hands do more to establish her character and her maturity than any other part of her characterization. When not making appropriate gestures with her quite striking hands, she lets them fall gracefully and rest naturally at the end of her arms. This is a subtle but apt reflection on her character as a very mature adult with no need for foolish or idle gestures. Erica Sanchez is represented as the Minister of Health by a large video image. She doesn't appear on the stage until the curtain call. It seems a pity.