The Widower’s Houses

photo by Marielle Solan

The Widower’s Houses, the first play written by George Bernard Shaw was completed in 1892. This is the story of arranging a marriage between a young aristocrat, Dr. Harry Trench (Jeremy Beck), and the daughter of a self-made businessman, Blanche Sartorius (Talene Monahon). It starts as a romantic comedy with Harry accompanied by his friend William De Burgh Cokane (Jonathan Hadley) meeting Sartorius (Terry Layman) and his daughter on vacation in Germany. 

At first everything seems boringly light-minded: a naïve young man falling in love with a hot-tempered girl and flirting with her behind her father’s back while his restless friend Billy is trying to please the father and to ensure that the marriage arrangements go smoothly.      

But things start to get ugly once the company comes home to London. Harry finds out that his future father in law is a slum lord and the fortune that comes with the marriage comes from the pockets of the most poor and miserable. The knowledge of this nasty reality for their economic conditions bursts into his perfect world through the encounter with Lickcheese, the rent collector (John Plumpis). The decision to make is not an easy one. Should he join forces and finances with Sartorius for the sake of money or should he remain faithful to his humane beliefs and stay uninvolved?

The feeling of being trapped within the economic system and the pressure to make a decision is conveyed by the lighting design (by Peter West) in two brief scenes, one in the very beginning and one towards the end. Harry steps down from the platform on which the most of the action takes place and stairs at the audience. We can only see his face lit brightly from beneath. The rest of the characters are aligned, heads turned towards Harry.

The same lighting technique is featured in the scene following Harry’s discovery about the origin of his bride’s money. He is numb on the sofa, his thoughts are spinning and we hear “voices in his head”. These simple and cleverly staged moments spread an uncanny, Kafkaesque mood on the entire production, which is otherwise very conventional.

Another gem of The Widower’s Houses is Talen Monahon portraying Blanche, a character that could make an interesting case for Dr. Sigmund Freud. She starts strong, as a manipulative gold-digger with an inherited sense for a good deal. With Harry, not only did she find a romantic adventure and a prospect of a beneficial marriage but also another potential “puppet” to serve her and admire her.

Throughout the play we observe her violently abusing her maid (Hanna Cheek), puling her hair, using her as a human recliner, yelling in her ear that she hates the very sight of her. Blanche is also trying to manipulate her father and in an intimate conversation with Sartorius, Blanche whines that she doesn’t want to get married; all she wants is to stay with her father forever. And yet she doesn’t mind being a “down payment” when the business deal is on the table.

          

The Widower’s Houses, produced by The Actors Company Theater and directed by David Staller, overall leaves an uneven impression. With its very good cast dressed and styled flawlessly in costumes by Barbara A. Bell, but a flimsy set design (by Brian Prather), it seems like the set was built for a different, smaller stage that was too tight for some of the scenes. For example, the slapstick sequence between Blanche and Harry.

The only time when Staller was able to utilize the dead space was the moment when Harry is making a life changing decision. By practically stopping the play and making Harry step out of the stage, Staller shows the significance of the moment not only for the individual character but for all of Europe, with its rapidly changing class system.