From the Journal Sentinel:
Talkin' ShawYou have to applaud a larger-than-life playwright who can poke fun at himself. "Words, words, words. I am so sick of words," exclaims the spirited and young Hypatia Tarleton in George Bernard Shaw's "Misalliance," the third play in the first wave of APT openings this summer.
Shaw's Achilles heel is his verbosity. His work sometimes makes Chekhov's characters appear to be action figures in comparison. One wishes Shaw had done more than laugh at himself and edited his plays with greater vigor.
That being said, there is much to like in the APT's three-hour staging of "Misalliance." The relationship between parents and their almost adult children is the recurring theme, but Shaw makes delightfully pithy comments about his usual range of social concerns. Female superiority, religion, the wealthy and class distinctions are the subjects of wry observations and barbed zingers.
This production gives the younger members of APT's acting company the opportunity to show their stuff, and they make a strong case for the excellence of the next generation of performers here. Chris Klopatek and Darragh Kennan are sublimely wonderful in the respective characters of the bratty Bentley Summerhays and the strangely troubled Gunner.
Marcus Truschinski carries a major dialogue load with fluid ease, and Carrie A. Coon impressively reprises the role of Hypatia that she originally played in a Milwaukee Chamber Theatre production of "Misalliance" in 2005. John Langs directed.
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