A review of Pygmalion

First of a four-part series[/B][/I] [I]The Friends of the Arts will be presenting the musical, My Fair Lady, on two successive weekends in April. The first showing will be on Friday, April 17, and Saturday, April 18, 2009. The second showing will take place on Friday April 24, and Saturday, April 25, 2009. This is the musical adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion. Shaw was interested in exploring the power divide between the rich and the poor as well as the differences between accents and ideas of the different social classes. The following is a condensed explanation of Acts I through V of the play, Pygmalion, and will appear on four successive Fridays before the musical is presented at the Multi-Purpose Center on Beach Road. [/I]

It is raining in Covent Garden at 11:15pm. Freddy is explaining to his mother and sister Clara that there are no cabs available. While looking around, he runs into Liza, a flower girl, and spills her flowers into the mud. Freddie’s mother gives Liza sixpence to compensate her for her loss. Colonel Pickering comes onstage, and Liza tries to sell him a flower. A man behind a pillar is writing down every word Liza speaks and she thinks he is working for the police; she claims she has done nothing wrong. Henry Higgins, the man behind the pillar, shows her that he is interested in her accent only and he amuses the crowd by imitating the manner in which she speaks. Liza is very upset because she thinks Higgins is mocking her, but actually he is simply trying to explain the difference in accents between the different classes in England.

In the course of their conversation, Higgins and Pickering learn that they are destined to be friends as Pickering wanted to meet the inventor of” The Higgins Universal Alphabet”, a method of shorthand writing. Pickering had actually come from India to meet Higgins. They go off together to have dinner after Higgins gives Liza a generous amount of money to compensate her for her loss.

Liza takes the cab home that Freddie finally finds for his mother and sister, but they are already gone. The cabbie was hesitant about letting her ride, but she had plenty of money, thanks to Henry Higgins, so he gave her a ride.

Next week, we will explore Liza’s goal of self-improvement, as she is manipulated into participating in an experiment with Higgins to change her entire persona. We will also see her transformation of Liza, the flower girl, into Eliza, the society lady.

Editor’s Note: Sylvia Haywood is the publicity chairman for the Friends of the Arts.