Tom Rooney, Graeme Somerville, Allison Edwards-Crewe & Sochi Fried in Heartbreak House | Photo by David Cooper

It has been properly acknowledged that George Bernard Shaw was steering into Chekovian territory with Heartbreak House. (Oh, the ennui!) What I haven’t seen so thoroughly remarked upon is how influenced he seems to have been by Oscar Wilde too. I mean, the first act of this plays out as if we’ve been mischievously dropped into a frivolous comedy of manners. As people keep showing up on the scene, I expected an Ernest to manifest amongst them with whimsical importance.

Most plays have people talking, of course, but there is a density to Shaw’s text and its idealogical sparring that can be fatiguing, on the page especially, and I did start to wonder, as I read it a few weeks ago, if anyone was ever going to shut up. But execution makes all the difference and director Tim Carroll’s Shaw Festival production allows the ideas to pop while maintaining a generally compelling and varied ambiance. Continue Reading