he George Bernard Shaw classic Pygmalion is on stage now at the Chapel Street Players’ theatre in Newark.
Pygmalion, perhaps Shaw’s most famous play, was also the inspiration for the wildly successful musical and film My Fair Lady. It tells the story of a lower-class woman molded into a social elite by a curmudgeonly phonetics teacher on a bet.
For this performance, director Gwen Armstrong Barker set the play in a new era, moving it from its original setting in the early 20th Century.
“We've taken the time period and moved it forward," she says. "So when the curtain opens, you're in swinging London in 1968, which was a time of tremendous social upheaval.”
That’s something happening in miniature in the two main characters’ lives over the course of the play as well.
“It's all about the whole world getting turned upside down, which is really what happens with both Eliza and Henry's world," she explains.
She adds the story wrestles with themes of class and elitism, as well as the evolution of the character of Eliza Doolittle.
“And it's not just about money or power, it's really about self-discovery and exploration, self-exploration," she says.
Chapel Street Players’ performances of Pygmalion run through February 28 at their theatre in Newark.
Delaware Public Media's arts coverage is made possible, in part, by support from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.
