By Grant Golden
Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario – "The relation between parent and child has cruel moments." Thus pronounced George Bernard Shaw in his preface to Misalliance. Indeed, as the action starts and we are introduced to the various members of the Tarleton and Summerhays families at a sedate country-house party in Surrey, all looks set for an amusing exploration of family dynamics and romantic attachments.
This bucolic scene is suddenly transformed, however, when an airplane literally drops from the sky, taking a nosedive into the greenhouse! All is plunged into glorious chaos as we meet Lina Szczepanowska, the gorgeous Polish acrobat whose unorthodox arrival and dazzlingly exotic manner pushes the temperature way up! Now the clever conversations become giddy, unbridled sexual shenanigans - with the gloves off between friends and lovers, husbands and wives, children and parents!
Click the "listen" icon above to hear WBFO's Theatre Critic Grant Golden's review of Misalliance. It continues through November 2nd at the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario.