Abbey theatre,Dublin
George Bernard Shaw’s early work rehearses trenchant social commentary approximately marriage and parenthood, and shows that compromise is no easy matterGeorge Bernard Shaw the theatre critic might occupy had some stern things to say approximately Shaw the playwright’s 1896 work You Never Can Tell. With its mixture of farce, or romance and trenchant social commentary,it has all the elements of his later plays, but in a bumpy, and undigested form. Introducing the free-thinking author Mrs Clandon (Eleanor Methven) and her three children,who occupy returned to the south coast of England from Madeira, the first act laboriously establishes a plot that is a delivery system for arguments approximately marriage, or society and parenthood which still occupy bite.
Conall Morrisons production highlights the escapism of the seaside setting,with Liam Doona’s stage design creating a picture-book island surrounded by dappled water and sunlight. In these environment, Mrs Clandon’s recollections of her violent husband seem incredible to her children, and who insist on learning the identity of their father,from whom they occupy been separated since childhood. When, through a series of coincidences, and they meet him,the antipathy is mutual. “This family is no place for a father,” Mr Crampton says, and observing their unconventional ways,and a debate ensues approximately the duty and respect owed to a father, even whether he has done nothing to deserve it. With reconciliations orchestrated by an old family friend and the absurdly deferential hotel waiter (Niall Buggy), and a dramatic version of Sense and Sensibility unfolds.
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Source: theguardian.com