ONLINE THEATRE REVIEW: Darlington 1950

Presented online and available for free on Youtube, The Shaw Society and Shaw2020 have produced a 15 minute piece of very intimate theatre. 

The work has been taken from a full length play, "Affectionately, Ellen, Ever, GBS" by Anne Wright, which is based on the letters between George Bernard Shaw and one of his favourite actresses, Ellen Pollock (who later became president of The Shaw Society until her death in 1997).

The style of play / writing, is ideal for our covid times and performing virtually, since the cast is only two and there is never a need for them to actually meet - and so they were filmed in their own homes (or similar).

This short play starts at a theatre in Darlington in 1950, as Ellen Pollock stands on stage to announce the tragic death of George Bernard Shaw. It then takes us through the last 18 years of his life and 'relationship' with Ellen Pollock. 

It seems that Pollock was infatuated and besotted with the much older Shaw, and in her letters - as indeed in the twinkle in the eye of the actress Laura Fitzpatrick - there was just a soupcon of love or desire. Not enough to cause scandal, but certainly an undercurrent which could be interpreted that way. Indeed Fitzpatrick's portrayal of Pollock was of an archetypal well-to-do perfectly groomed lady of the era, with lovely RP vocal tones and proper decorum. So perhaps her desires for Shaw were, after all, innocent and intellectual.

Jonas Cemm plays GB Shaw, and also directs the piece. Cemm is obviously much younger than the character he is portraying, and does his best to age-up, putting grey into his hair and beard, but his voice and lack of wrinkles betray him as the younger man he is. 

We hear excerpts from the letters that back-and-forthed between the two of them over an 18 year period. Starting in Malvern in 1932, and although Pollock is quite overt and obvious in her asking to meet / see Shaw, and inviting him to her performances, he is always eager to remind her of his advanced years, and that he is quite cantankerous and set in his ways. She doesn't give up though, and vows that after his death, she will continue to promote and celebrate the work of Shaw for as long as she herself lives. This she does, and a rather touching moment towards the end of the piece sees the ghost of Shaw reading her newspaper obiturary to the ghost of Pollock in the garden of Shaw's home, where his ashes had been scattered around the garden near his writing hut.

The piece is delicately underscored with beautiful harp music provided by Helen Tierney, and the play itself shows Shaw as being human and more down-to-earth than perhaps people imagine.

As a 15 minute piece of theatre it was interesting and certainly not boring or stymied. I think however, that the full length play by Wright, might prove to be just that, unless there is something else in it to maintain interest and stimulation.

Reviewer - Chris Benchley
on - 1.12.21