Looking Again at the Sins of the Father
Alexis SoloskiNovember 21, 2014: Inescapably playful and undeniably serious, George Bernard Shaw’s 1905 Major Barbara pits youth against age, poverty against wealth, faith against armored tanks. You might be surprised which side you ultimately take. In this Pearl Theater revival, directed by David Staller, the imperious Lady Britomart (Carol Schultz) decides to reunite her grown children with their estranged father, Andrew Undershaft (Dan Daily). A “manufacturer of mutilation and murder,” who has made millions selling battleships and cannons to anyone who wants to pay for them, he takes a particular shine to his eldest girl, Barbara (Hannah Cabell), a Salvation Army crusader. Their ideals seem at loggerheads, so he proposes a bargain: “If I go to see you tomorrow in your Salvation shelter, will you come the day after to see me in my cannon works?” “Take care,” she says. “It may end in your giving up the cannons for the sake of the Salvation Army.” Undershaft doubts it. Though right would seem to be all on his daughter’s side, Undershaft argues persuasively that instead of saving souls we might better devote ourselves to saving bodies.
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