Theatre review: Candida

I'm not sure there's much at the moment that can't set off depressing thoughts on the current political situation, but walking into the Orange Tree to see the question "why are so many living in poverty?" as part of Simon Daw's set when, 120 years after Bernard Shaw's Candida premiered, the nation's official answer remains a resolute "who cares?" definitely has to qualify. The writings on the wall come from the Fabian Society, the influential Socialist group of which Shaw was a member, as is his character the Rev. James Morrell (Martin Hutson.) James is a much sought-after speaker who uses his day-job as a minister to drive home the similarity between Christian and Socialist values; he works tirelessly with support from his wife Candida (Claire Lams,) and practises what he preaches - some months earlier the couple helped a teenager they found sleeping rough on the Embankment.

Eugene (Joseph Potter) actually turned out to be a somewhat otherworldly member of the aristocracy, but James and Candida still took him into their circle, believing that he's been captivated by James' words like so many others. In fact Eugene has been falling steadily in love with Candida, and when she returns from a trip out of town he visits, confronting James with his feelings and challenging him for her love. It's not so much any real sign that she might reciprocate his feelings that makes her husband worry, as the fact that Eugene targets his own insecurities and accuses him of being full of little more than empty words.

Paul Miller's production is sharp and pacy, meaning the witty lines come to life, and James gets to win his early verbal battles against his Scrooge-like industrialist father-in-law (Michael Simkins) before coming unstuck when faced with a more passionate opponent. Passion is all that Eugene ultimately has going for him though, and although the play acknowledges, and makes fun of, the fact that the aspiring poet is full of florid metaphors that say little about what he actually means, I did find it frustrating, with the play making James' political beliefs such a major point of his character, that his opponent ultimately stands for nothing - and as exposing James' weakness is the play's major narrative arc, he's unchallenged on this throughout.

In fact the actual radical politics Shaw is promoting is to do with gender, and the women get the best lines - even in the supporting cast where James' typist Proserpine (Sarah Middleton) gets a number of scene-stealing moments compared to the competely underwritten curate Lexi (Kwaku Mills.) After a couple of hours of men arguing over her as if she's property, Candida taking back her own story is empowering to the point that the play inspired "Candidamania" after its 1898 premiere. To a modern audience it's frustrating that we've had to listen to the two damaged men talk about her instead of spending more time with Lams, whose arrival gives an added sparkle to any scene, her character the one in the central trio with any actual depth beneath her words. The production can't disguise the fact that Shaw spends the most time with the least interesting characters, but it does show the virtues the play does still possess in its quick wit and the eventual undercutting of all the talk.

Candida by Bernard Shaw is booking until the 18th of January at the Orange Tree Theatre.

Running time: 2 hours including interval.

Photo credit: Johan Persson.