Review: Heartbreak House at Pitlochry Festival Theatre

Jul 25 2008 by Alison Anderson, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

THE fifth play to open in Pitlochry’s Summer Season is Heartbreak House by Bernard Shaw, who subtitles this work ‘A Fantasia in The Russian Manner on English Themes’.

And much like the PFT season’s opener, Wild Honey, Heartbreak House puts the microscope on the lives of vacuous affluent people who have far too much time on their hands!

The play is set on an English country estate in 1917 where Shaw’s eccentric, self-indulgent characters are oblivious to the horrors of World War 1 even when their own environs become a bloody field of battle.

Heartbreak House is home to the eccentric Captain Shotover, an ancient mariner turned inventor of exotic weaponry, and his bohemian daughter, Hesione, who lives off the royalties from her father’s inventions with her incurably flirtatious husband, Hector.

Appalled that her protégé Ellie Dunn has chosen to marry for money, not love, Hesione invites Ellie and her fiancé, the industrialist Boss Mangan, for the weekend, intending to break up the match – only to discover that Ellie’s decision was prompted by a dalliance with another man – one known all too well to Hesione.

The sudden arrival of the doolally Shotover’s estranged younger daughter, the entirely proper social climber Lady Utterwood, creates further discord, particularly when she is followed to Sussex by her adoring brother-in-law Randall.

As the weekend progresses, the house lives up to its name: engagements are broken, plots are hatched, the sea becomes rougher and the ship of state sails closer to the rocks – until the crash of the breakers begins to sound alarmingly like gunfire.

Liberally peppered with Shaw’s pithy and witty observations on life, Heartbreak House moves from frivolous comedy to darker drama, chillingly underlining the playwright’s prophetic depiction of a society on the brink of a rude awakening.

The intricate structure of this work demands audience concentration throughout, and at times it is hard to make sense of all the interaction between so many oddball characters. And Shaw’s blacker than black depiction of the fairer sex – and the tame capitulation by the male of the species – strays beyond the bounds of credibility.

Technically, this production is a success under the direction of Richard Baron, who has trimmed Heartbreak House to a sensible length and utilised well the wealth of acting talent within the PFT ensemble. Particularly impressive is Deirdre Davis who took on the pivotal role of Hesione at the 11th hour. Despite having less than a week to learn the part, Deirdre’s mantel as this strong-minded woman is as glittering as her to-die-for costumes.

Ellie Dunn is well captured by Helen Millar as she peels off the layers of this complex character; Richard Addison as the world-weary captain encapsulates the old sea dog’s eccentricities with a practical charm; and Jonathan Coote lays on the sleaze as the caddish Hector Hushabye.

When the temperature gets uncomfortably hot in Boss Mangan’s life, Dougal Lee turns to melodrama which rather loses the impact of what turns out to be a rather pitiful person, while Jacqueline Dutoit is well-cast as the Captain’s unloved younger daughter.

Charles Cusick Smith designed the handsome wood-panelled country home with its nautical theme and the stunning costumes. And Ace McCarron, responsible for the lighting design of all six PFT productions this season, scores another triumph with Heartbreak House, particularly with the moving final scene set in the garden of this dysfunctional house.

Heartbreak House plays in repertoire until October 17.