TT: Smile as the bomb goes off

In today’s Wall Street Journal I report enthusiastically on a pair of shows in Chicagoland and Washington, D.C., Writers’ Theatre’s production of George Bernard Shaw’s Heartbreak House and the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s revival of Harold Pinter’s Old Times. Here’s an excerpt.
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Shaw’s purpose in writing “Heartbreak House” was to suggest that World War I had brought the British ruling class to the end of its tether. But the complexity of his own world view (he opposed British involvement in the war but was himself a power-worshipper with a totalitarian itch who believed passionately in human perfectibility) charges what might have been a standard-issue Shavian sermon with the multi-layered ambiguity of high art. So, too, does Writers’ Theatre’s new production, directed with extreme sensitivity by William Brown, make a compelling case for ranking “Heartbreak House” alongside Jean Renoir’s “Rules of the Game” as one of the great fictional chronicles of how Europe’s upper classes lost their way–and their will.
Now that “Heartbreak House” is in the public domain, it can be performed with cuts, and Mr. Brown has tightened the script so shrewdly that you’ll have to look at the published version to see what got left out of his staging, which runs for about two hours and 45 minutes. He has also moved the action forward from 1914 to 1940 in order to give the play a more contemporary feel. It’s a clever touch, though my guess is that both of the world wars will seem equally alien to most of those who see this revival. Far more important is the skill with which Mr. Brown has balanced the play’s predominantly comic aspect with the sharp shock of the final scene, in which sirens wail and bombs descend on the country garden of the Shotovers, who respond with a horrific glee that symbolizes the death wish of their doomed class.
Mr. Brown has put together a knockout cast led by Karen Janes Woditsch as Hesione Hushabye, the sexiest of the Shotovers. Charismatic is far too mild a word for Ms. Woditsch…
The Shakespeare Theatre Company is doing excellent things with “Old Times,” Harold Pinter’s compact, creepy comedy (or is it?) about a smug husband, his seemingly naïve wife and a houseguest whose arrival has an effect on the couple not unlike pitching a hand grenade into their bedroom. While every aspect of this production is impressive, the best thing about it is Holly Twyford, who gives a stupendously good performance as Anna, the mysterious guest. The contrast between Ms. Twyford’s tightly crossed legs and the long arms that she flings about like the tentacles of a carnivorous octopus is both riotously funny and downright frightening….
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Read the whole thing here.