George Bernard Shaw, the
Irish playwright and satirist, who is the father figure of The Shaw Festival,
once wrote, “They undertake to make a new world after every war with hardly
brains enough to manage a fried fish stall.” John Murrell who adapted Shaw’s GENEVA
into PEACE IN OUR TIME: A COMEDY, took the original author’s ideas and turned
them not into a farcical look at how effective talking and listening may be
humanity’s only chance for survival.
Note that this PEACE IN
OUR TIME is not the 1946 play by Noel Coward which focuses on a small group of
Londoners in pub and imagines what would have happened if Britain had fallen to
the Germans early during the Second World War.
Through almost a
vaudevillian approach, Murrell, a Texan who moved to Canada and became one of
the country’s leading playwrights, develops a course of high jinks from an
appeal to a nonfunctioning United Nation’s agency, to a trial in which
Mussolini, Hitler and Franco are interrogated.
The title of the play
comes from a phrase echoed by Benjamin Disraeli, who, in 1878, following the
Congress of Berlin, stated, “I have returned from Germany with peace in our
time.” He was wrong. And, when British Prime Minister
Neville Chamberlain, following participation in the Munich Agreement on
September 30, 1938, made a similar statement, he also was wrong. The next day Germany occupied the Sudetenland
and started what would become World War II.
As we watch in often
hysterical comic horror, we hear satirical comments about the League of Nations,
Hitler, Canada, Switzerland, music, politics, religion, closed-minded people,
the beliefs of Americans, President Wilson, Britain, legal systems, the role of
power, English public schools, journalists, nationalism, the privacy snooping
in the US, super-nationalism, patriotism, and glory. The whole affair ends with the conclusions that “humanity is
doomed” and “the experiment called humanity is a failure.”
Though a little long, the
play is both humorous and intriguing.
The Shaw production, under
the guidance of director Blair Williams, generally works well. The set design, costumes and lighting,
all aid in creating the right, ridiculous moods. The action is quickly paced and the laughs well cued.
Neil Barclay is
hysterical as Mussolini. Lorne Kennedy, though hard to understand due to a very
heavy accent, captures Franco quite well. Ric Reid, as Hitler, fails to create
a strong enough character, often looking uncomfortable playing one of the most
hated men in history.
Diana Donnelly is ditzy-right
as Belle, the air-headed Ohioan, who is nearly responsible for world
destruction. Charlie Gallant nicely
develops the role of Joseph Rubinstein, a put-upon Jewish German. The rest of the cast effectively help
carry out the assault.
Capsule judgement: PEACE IN OUR TIME is a farcical
romp, pitting the Three Stooges against Shavian satire. Though the second act gets a little
tedious, the overall effect is a learning experience about the foibles of
politics and the stupidity of humans for allowing governmental systems to
operate with little regard for humanity.
PEACE IN OUR TIME runs
through October 12 in the Court House Theatre. For
more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.shawfest.com or call 1-800-511-7429.
