Pygmalion

I’ve been following Dot Productions like a stalker for the last few years. They formed in 2008 and tend to have five actors, a producer and a wide view of what they want to perform. Three years ago, we saw Sense and Sensibility – last year, we saw their adaptation of Jane Eyre. Both were adapted from novel to play form beautifully by Pat Bush, who played parts in both productions; she was Robert Ferrars in Sense and Sensibility, which fitted so well with Austen’s vision of the foppish Robert that I wonder how nobody else has thought of it.

Yesterday’s treat was ‘Pygmalion’. I bought tickets because it was in Coggeshall Barn, a lovely setting – because Himself had no idea what Pygmalion was about (even My Fair Lady struck no note of recognition there) and because it was Dot Productions. Like the Propellor Company, everything they do is worth going to see.

We took better seats this time. Last time we went to Coggeshall, we took our lawn chairs and realised only later that the high backs that made them so comfortable also made it impossible for the rows behind to see anything on the stage. This time, I’d bought some light folding chairs that had backs low enough to see over. My bad. The seat part was just tall enough that the people who settled behind us (with low-slung seats) muttered to each other about swapping places at the interval. We were just tall enough to see over the seats in front. It’s a lottery.

Again, there were five actors – a different five, but the same Dot magic. I have to say that the subject grated on us, with the snooty Henry Higgins able to tell the Cockney flower seller to ‘Sit down and shut up!’ But by the end, Henry’s mother tells him outright that he’s a fool and Eliza finds her way out from under his control.

This is loud, boisterous and funny, and although we left thinking that we’d just seen an unpleasant piece of Edwardian snobbery, we’ve been thinking it over and seen how the end of the play leaves Eliza and Henry. She was clear thinking, willing to pay for the education that would open a world to her. Henry was sneering at her low origins and what he saw as her inability to put any delicate substance into her new genteel speech, but it was Henry who was called out for his swearing and callous attitude, while Eliza’s dignity drew praise from his mother and friend.

Dot Productions plays are always fun, and they bring some unusual works to the theatre. They’re still touring ‘Pygmalion’; you’ve missed Coggeshall, but watch out for them at Brome, Sudbury, Swindon, Brentwood, Bedford, Richmond and Doncaster.