It used to be said that George Bernard Shaw's introductions were better than his plays. I don't think anyone believes that anymore. The long, extended notes that precede many of Shaw's plays are certainly testament to his mastery of rhetoric, his wit and paradox. But the thought is mostly outdated -- in the sense of obvious, not that it is no longer believed. George Jean Nathan once diagrammed Shaw's technique by writing "Platitudes" upside down and backwards. Shaw's genius lies in making the talk play, so that even his antagonist has better phrased arguments than most can invent. And Too True To Be Good remains in the repertory because it is very amusing for two acts and the beginning of a third -- full of Shaw's paradoxes and reversals of expectations. Unfortunately, it ends with truly dreary sermonizing.
Shaw complained that the critics and audiences believed that the thief/Count/preacher was his spokesperson, but since Shaw presents the man humorously but not satirically as foolish, and since he ends his play with the man fairly rhetorically effectively complaining that the world is in a hopeless mess, why wouldn't we think so? Sometimes paradox can bite the hand that makes it.
This production, the Shaw Festival's fourth, is directed with sharp theatricality by Jim Mezon, who usually finds what physical comedy he can as director. William Vickers, unrecognizable in a bizarre costume as The Microbe (a human-sized creature we find lying on the bed with The Patient, a tiresome sickly girl) is very funny complaining about the measles he's contracted from his victim, and generally clowns sufficiently in the first act for us to miss him later. Nicole Underhay makes a goofy transition from whiny victim to powerful, independent girl when attacked. Her nemesis is her virago of a mother who drives the doctor crazy demanding new prescriptions and treatments so that she can kill this daughter like her earlier children, with "kindness." Blair Williams is the Burglar who talks the Patient into stealing her own famous pearl necklace and running off to Africa to pretend to be a native serving girl and thus be "Free."
Kelli Fox is perhaps the funniest of the lot. Her selfish, unhelpful Nurse in Act I will become a phony Countess in Act II and have a hilarious seduction scene with an uptight sergeant segueing into Act III. I don't know whether Ms Fox enjoys playing "The Nurse" as much as she seems to, but her spirited enactment is irresistible.
Then there's the subservient, dim-witted Private who turns out to be running all facets of a war campaign in Africa and is modeled on Shaw's friend, Lawrence of Arabia. And a Colonel who would rather be a painter of water colors. And an atheist Elder, the father of the Burglar, who rails against religion and reads and quotes from "Pilgrim's Progress."
Because Shaw Festival's ensemble is so masterfully adept, this iron-handed whimsy is really very entertaining, but, as indicated, ends in sermonizing. Too True To Be Good passes the time wittily, but it's not much of a play.
