By William Wolf

MAN AND SUPERMAN  Send This Review to a Friend

The wit flows with machine-gun like consistency in this pleasurable adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s “Man and Superman” presented jointly by the Irish Repertory Theatre and the Gingold Theatrical Group. David Staller has both adapted and directed the revival.

With Shaw you can count on plenty of clever observations about human behavior, relations between men and women and the state of society, and there is no exception here. The time is “The Present, 1905,” with the action flitting from England to Spain, with a stop in Hell for good measure in the delectable first scene of Act II.

Early on veteran actor Brian Murray sets a bigoted tone as Roebuck Ramsden, who typically wouldn’t soil his mind by even reading the controversial “The Revolutionist’s Handbook” by Jack Tanner (charismatic Max Gordon Moore), who takes great pleasure in needling him. But the two are thrown together as a result of the will of Ann Whitefeld’s father, who has assigned joint guardianship over Ann (Janie Brookshire). Ramsden thinks the arrangement intolerable.

Count on Shaw for clever complications. Ann is enamored of Jack, who is a reluctant catch. Supposedly Ann is to get together with Octavius (“Tavy”), played by Will Bradley. Anoher entangled situation involves Octavius’s sister Violet (Margaret Loesser Robinson) and the gossip about her.

Although he has done some cutting, Staller includes the famous “Don Juan in Hell” portion, which is often eliminated, or which has been performed as its own attraction. Here we find Jack as Don Juan, and the dialogue between him and the devil in the person of the Spanish Mendoza (Jonathan Hammond) is barbed and funny. It is good that Staller has chosen to give us the scene, which adds further wit and amusement to the production.

The overall result of the mounting is enjoyable, thanks to an appealing cast that establishes an abundance of audience good will as we follow the intricacies of how the playwright works out everything in his mischievous fashion.

Credit James Noone for the classy basic set he has designed suited to the limits of the Irish Repertory Theatre’s tiny stage. At the Irish Repertory Theatre, 132 West 22nd Street. Phone: 212-727-2737

  

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