By Seymore Butts

Staff Writer

 

It’s early December in Oberlin, and that can only mean one thing: the event we’ve all been waiting for with baited breath for the entire semester is upon us!  Or at least, it was upon us, before, when it happened.  That’s right, the Theater Department’s fall main-stage show went up in Hall Auditorium this past weekend.  The show, George Bernard Shaw’s moral tour-de force Major Barbara, was relatively well-received by the crowd of family, friends, and dedicated people looking to get into the pants of members of the cast.  Major Barbara was directed by Paul Moser and starred a hodgepodge of veteran actors and newcomers.

       The play was for the most part solidly acted, though the script itself was further evidence that whoever chooses the shows that the department puts up has less of a sense of humor than a slice of stale bread.  The storyline was weak, and only thinly veiled Shaw’s masturbatory discussion of turn-of-the-century moral values.  The plot as I discerned it went something like this:  there’s this dude (Andrew Undershaft, played by senior Barry Bryan) who is a millionaire and owns a bunch of weapons manufacturing plants whose wife (Lady Britomart, played by senior Gillian Willow Ten-More-Names) leaves him because he wants to disinherit his mealy-mouthed son (sophomore Andrew Mooney) and leave all his money to a foundling (because no lengthy British play is complete without a foundling).  Meanwhile, Britty and Andy’s daughter, Barbara has joined the Salvation Army and is busy renouncing wealth and saving the souls of the poor.  She and her father make a bet in order to try and win each other over to the other’s value systems and agree to spend a day touring her shelter and a day touring his weapons manufacturing factory. I think this is how it went, at least.  By the end of the first act I was folding paper cranes out of the program.

       The end result of all this madness is an uproarious debate over the nature of morality that results in the complete ruination of Barbara’s idealistic soul, showing the triumph of capitalism over faith, man over woman, and technology over nature.  Holler back, pragmatism.  As depressed (and intellectually exhausted) as I was after seeing the show, both Bryan and Clare McNulty, who played Major Barbara, gave strong and engaging performances.  Also notable were sophomore Tom Wilson and senior Jon Levin, who played a pair of bums (I’m sure there’s a more politically correct word for that, but I don’t care) with hilarious results.  

     Over all, the performance was thought provoking, even if it was drier than a [filthy metaphor removed by editor].  I came away deep in the throes of existential contemplation, feeling deeply conflicted about my own role in the moral hypocrisy of the current epoch.  I also found myself curious about what went on in the parts of the script that I missed due to the unintelligibility of the British accents affected by the actors; I didn’t lose to much sleep over it, though, since the accents faded in and out enough that I think I caught the important parts.

       Last but not least, I noticed during intermission that Hall Auditorium didn’t seem to have any copies of the Grape available in the lobby, though there were more copies of The Review than I have ever seen before in one place.  I chose to optimistically assume that they all got snapped up before the doors opened.