Gabriella Sundar Singh as Barbara Undershaft and Patrick Galligan as Andrew Undershaft in Major Barbara.David Cooper/Shaw Festival
Title: Major Barbara
Written by: Bernard Shaw
Performed by: Fiona Byrne, Patrick Galligan, Patty Jamieson, Ron Kennell, André Morin, Sepehr Reybod, Gabriella Sundar Singh, Taurian Teelucksingh, Lindsay Wu
Directed by: Peter Hinton-Davis
Company: Shaw Festival
Venue: Royal George Theatre
City: Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont.
Year: Until Oct. 5
The Salvation Army has a curious place in contemporary culture. Some think of it as a spot to donate gently used clothing and housewares; others might associate it with bell-ringing outside grocery stores and malls at Christmastime.
When the organization does garner significant attention, it often tends to be negative. In recent years, media coverage of the institution has zeroed in on claims of anti-LGBTQ policies, as well as a sex abuse scandal in Australia.
Founded in London in the mid-19th century, the Salvation Army started not as a controversial charity empire, but as a means of saving – and proselytizing – the poor. Members were not merely volunteers but soldiers in their dual-edged crusade toward eradicating poverty and secularism.
In Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara, the contradictions of a life in service to evangelism are obvious and biting. Shaw highlights the hypocrisy embedded into philanthropy – the fact that even organizers with good intentions will, at a certain point, shake hands with the devil.
From left to right, Fiona Byrne as Rummy Mitchens, Lindsay Wu as Jenny Hill, Ron Kennell as Peter Shirley, and Taurian Teelucksingh as Snobby Price.David Cooper/Shaw Festival
Shaw’s play with songs, though long-winded and cerebral, advocates for dialogue, rather than mere bickering, between factions, and in director Peter Hinton-Davis’s angular production at the Shaw Festival, the work holds up as a cautionary tale – even for audiences whose knowledge of the Salvation Army starts and ends with its role in helping to downsize a coat closet.
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When we meet the Undershaft family, they’re in tumult: The children have grown up, and Lady Britomart (Fiona Byrne) is scrambling to secure their financial futures. While their estranged father Andrew (a scene-stealing Patrick Galligan) is obscenely wealthy – owing to his work as a weapons manufacturer – he’s been conspicuously absent from the family for decades.
When Andrew returns to his wife and children, cash in tow, it becomes clear that the Undershafts’ problems extend beyond their wallets. Daughter Barbara (Gabriella Sundar Singh) has abandoned her wealthy heritage to become a major in the Salvation Army, while rudderless son Stephen (Taurian Teelucksingh) has dithered himself into a corner with no escape. Only Sarah (Lindsay Wu) seems ready for the rest of her life – but then again, that will be tricky without Dad’s bomb money to save the day.
A wager between Andrew and his righteous daughter results in revelations about society that aren’t wholly satisfying: In life, there’s seldom any pure good, nor unadulterated wickedness. In Major Barbara, the Salvation Army accepts donations from dubious sources. Weapons manufacturing, meanwhile, isn’t necessarily an indefensible trade.
Hinton-Davis helms an attractive production that mostly succeeds in its examination of societal malaise. Gillian Gallow’s costumes are luxe and well-tailored, yet feel right at home on her bony, sparse set. The Undershaft home, as well as Andrew’s explosives factory, are flanked by steep, sharp stair units, and the family estate adds another evocative design element: an unsettlingly large portrait of a woman who peers down at the Undershafts like The Great Gatsby’s Doctor T.J. Eckleburg.
That said, the production’s performances are less consistent than its aesthetics – Galligan is the standout and plays Andrew with a confident, Roger Sterling-esque swagger. Teelucksingh is formidable, too, as is Sepehr Reybod in the split roles of Charles and Bill.
Gabriella Sundar Singh and André Morin as Adolphus Cusins.David Cooper/Shaw Festival
Sundar Singh, though often excellent both at the Shaw Festival and elsewhere, is miscast in the role of Barbara, whose relentless rally against the somewhat shapeless idea of sin doesn’t provide much active text for the actor to chew on. While Sundar Singh has a few strong scenes, she more often gets lost in Barbara’s lengthy spells of religious pontificating.
All in all, Major Barbara is one of the festival’s stronger offerings this year. It’s a clever interpretation of Shaw’s text even if, for all its implicit relevance, it feels its three-hour runtime. (One does wonder if there’s a two-hour cut of this play to be found, tucked between Shaw’s psalms and songs.)
What role do organizations such as the Salvation Army have in shaping today’s society? That’s a bigger question than Major Barbara can answer. But Shaw’s play pulls back the curtain on the charity’s roots and showcases the conditions in which such evangelism was able to sink its teeth into the British working class. And indeed, there are far worse morals to dramatize than the importance of staying vigilant to the rise of evil in unlikely places.
