How would you feel if you knew someone had placed a bet with a mate that they could 'make something' of you? You'd probably not be impressed by the supercilious, patronising piece of work. In which case you'd be just like Eliza Doolittle.
The piece of work who bets he can make our fair Eliza, a Cockney flower seller, pass for a duchess at a garden party is a Professor Henry Higgins, and the title of the story in question is
Pygmalion: A Romance in Five Acts by George Bernard Shaw.
If you thought I was going to say
My Fair Lady then you're only a little wrong, this famous film and musical is based on the original play. And they share some well known quotes regarding the precipitation in a country in southern Europe, which is one of the key prongs to Prof. Higgins tutelage: getting Eliza to talk proper.
While ostensibly a romantic comedy,
Pygmalion is also a play about independent women, sexual politics, and the English class and education system, especially the importance placed on the veneer of social civility and an impeccable accent. So it's a funny play, but one with heart and a social agenda as well. And while it was first penned, literally, in 1912, the themes are still relevant today,
as the daughter of a flight attendant marries the future King of England.
The casting of this new production of
Pygmalion going into the
Garrick is a type-casters dream. Suave and debonaire
Rupert Everett is the Higgins to
Kara Tointon-of-Eastenders' Eliza.
