Sagging ‘House’ Ends On High Ground

In the first couple minutes of the Adams House Drama Society’s production of George Bernard Shaw’s “Heartbreak House,” genteel Brits lounged lazily over furniture, occasionally yawning to languid background parlor music. I hoped that the action would pick up in the next three hours.

It never did—but thank goodness because the performers’ fantastic indolence turned out to be the brilliant defining factor of “Heartbreak House,” which played in the Adams Pool Theatre this past weekend.

Producer Peter T. McGuire ’08 and director Alex Chase-Levenson ’08 created a delightfully quirky and humorous world of the “cultured, leisured Europe before the War.” The most impressive part of the production was the actors’ ability to captivate and generate excitement simply by using voice inflection and facial expressions to milk the most out of Shaw’s script.

Heartbreak House refers to the English country home of a sarcastic retired sea captain (Jonathan D. Schifferes) and his elder daughter Hesione (Julia M. Runcie ’10), who has just invited a guest to stay with them. Hesione plots to help Ellie Dunn (Mia P. Walker ’10) escape a marriage to “Boss” Mangan (Matthew I. Bohrer ’10), a business magnate whom she does not love.

A lethargically paced drama ensues when Ellie discovers that the stranger with whom she has fallen in love is Hesione’s playboy husband Hector (Harry M. Adamson). It continues with a stream of visitors who continually add to the angles of a complex love triangle. But the true excitement lies not simply in Shaw’s plot, reminding one of “The OC,” but also in the idiosyncratic characters that the actors so vividly bring to life.

Runcie was especially enchanting as the jaded and listless Hesione. It was comical to think of Hesione’s world-weary character as that of a femme fatale. But Runcie as Hesione was unmistakably a stage siren; in the nearly three hours of the play, she never failed to captivate. Even with drama happening center stage, it was hard to drag attention away from even Runcie’s exits.

Schifferes also delivered a notable performance, and while Adamson was a weak performer in the first act, he later became more intriguing with his spirited denunciation of Captain Shotover’s daughters. Bohrer was also slow to grow into his character, but he reached his element in the second act when he wildly alternated between furious rampages and lovelorn docility.

There were a few moments when the action on stage seemed more like the affectations of children playing tea party rather than like convincing acting. But in spite of these lapses, the actors effectively brought out the charm and wit of Shaw’s script.

Lighting design by Nicholas J. Shearer ’09 and sound design were modest, but suited the tranquil domestic scenes of the play. The set, designed by Sean P. Bala ‘09, though simple, effectively emanated the leisure of a genteel country home, especially in consideration of the theater’s limited space. Jessica C. Coggins ‘08 created costumes that were perfectly in character for the actors.

Unfortunately, the already slow pace of the play faltered towards the end of the second act and did not pick up again until the second half of Act III. This period possessed the languor of the first act without achieving the same captivating performances. The actors literally just sat still and exchanged banter—which is what they did throughout most of the play, but by Act II, this direction had grown tedious.

But the energy picked up again and “Heartbreak House” ended on the strong ground where they began. Snaps to the cast—they successfully made two hours and forty-five minutes of watching bored people sit around a house really entertaining.

--Reviewer April B. Wang can be reached at abwang@fas.harvard.edu