It's biting, but smooth. It's playful, but spares no one. "Pygmalion," being staged through September 27 at American Players Theatre in Spring Green, serves up some social commentary with a side of psychological analysis with a dead-on cast.
In turn-of-the-20th-century London, linguistics professor Henry Higgins (played by Jonathan Daly) takes on a bet to turn an impoverished flower girl into a duchess in six months or less. When he succeeds, he gets far more than he bargained for. Eliza Doolittle, referred to by Higgins as "draggletailed guttersnipe," uses her newly acquired tools of perfect speech to lay out some "truth-hurts" insight into Higgins and his experiment on her.
Not that Higgins doesn't have it coming.
Higgins, a self-proclaimed and self-absorbed bachelor, is eccentric and egotistical. But it's hard to hate him. Instead you laugh at him. Maybe even feel sorry for him. Presumably so removed from human relationships, he views his experience with Eliza as little more than new material for his resume.
Higgins isn't all to blame. He's joined by partner-in-plotting Colonel "Pick" Pickering, played by James Ridge. Pickering offers some sensitivity to counter Higgins, but not much.
In addition to perfect casting, APT deftly handles some staging challenges that face the outdoor venue.
Without the benefit of a curtain or the stage going dark, the amphitheater's set changes are cleverly integrated into the play. Actors dressed as maids and handymen swoop on and off with furniture pieces to transform Higgins' home into his mother's parlor and vice versa.
But transformation is virtually synonymous with "Pygmalion" after all.
George Bernard Shaw's 1912 "Pygmalion" is based on Latin poet Ovid's story (in the Metamorphoses) about a character named Pygmalion. Pygmalion falls in love with a beautiful ivory statue of a woman, so he prays to Venus that the beloved statue would come to life and the two would marry.
The same story also gave birth to 1964's "My Fair Lady," the romantic comedy musical starring Audrey Hepburn.
If you haven't experienced the classic story -- in any of its many forms -- now's the time.
For more information about American Players Theatre, call (608) 588-7401.
