On the Rocks: Shaw’s political satire still resonates

Put aside the debate over whether to elect or abolish the Senate for a moment, and consider this modest proposal: Why not just do away with pesky elections altogether?

Based on the cheering crowds that greeted our hereditary head-of-state-to-be William and his fashionable bride Kate on their recent visit - and the nearly 40 per cent of eligible Canadians who can't be bothered to show up at the ballot box - perhaps that's what people really want in this country.

The limits, contradictions and disappointments of democracy are the satirical subject of Bernard Shaw's On the Rocks, a 1933 comedy that takes place in a very familiar cultural climate of unemployment and riots, a Western empire in decline and countries rising in the East.

British Prime Minister Arthur Chavender - played with Canadian congeniality by Peter Krantz as a kind of political lovechild of Paul Martin and John Diefenbaker - is a Liberal leading a coalition government that is responding to the economic crisis as if, well, as if they were characters in a Shaw play: Lots of talk and almost no action.

After his wife suggests he go on a two-week retreat with a mysterious doctor (a captivating Claire Jullien) and a bushel of books by Karl Marx, however, Chavender returns a different man with a plan to prorogue parliament and implement radical change on his own.

In its original form, On the Rocks has all the appeal of Michael Ignatieff - undeniably intelligent, but wordy, given to tangents and a little awkward; more suited for the classroom than the (political) stage.

Thankfully along has come playwright Michael Healey - he of such political comedies as Plan B and Generous - with a rewrite, part of artistic director Jackie Maxwell's new scheme to revitalize some of the Shaw Festival's namesake's less wieldy plays.

Based on the excited buzz of the crowd on opening night, Healey's rejig certainly struck a chord. His first brainstorm was the realization that On the Rocks' first act is really a prologue; his version thrusts us directly into the chaos caused by Chavender's revelation of his reforms.

The pleasing paradoxes of Shaw's original play are retained, however, and it's not who you'd expect who backs Chavender's Marxist plans. The head of the navy (Norman Browning), a land-owning aristocrat (David Schurmann) and an Indian capitalist (Cherissa Richards) are all on board with his plans for bank and land nationalization, while a group of left-wing stalwarts are staunchly in opposition due to losing their right to strike.

"What is the right to strike?" protests Chavender, in a line that has lost none of its sting. "The right to starve on your enemy's doorstep and set the whole public against you."

Healey's hand is visible in some silliness added to the script, welcome relief from the Shavian comedy's rather exhausting wittiness. But the Canadian playwright has also subtly infused the comedy with more up-to-date ideas perhaps inspired by Thomas Frank's What's the Matter with Kansas? and the Tea Party phenomenon in the United States. His take asks: Will "the people" ever rise up for socialist ideas - or only in opposition to them?

Director Joseph Ziegler shows a sure hand in shepherding the excellent ensemble through Christina Poddubiuk's slightly claustrophobic set, but his production would benefit from modulation. Steven Sutcliffe's Conservative home secretary Dexter Rightside turns hysterical all too often, with diminishing comic results. Likewise, as the rabid young left-winger Aloysia Brollikins, Marla McLean excels in her quieter moments rather than the shrill, self-righteous speech that results in her being acclaimed as a master orator by her political foes.

It's Cherissa Richards as Dame Adhira Pandranath (formerly a male role) that instead wins that tribute from the audience, when she defends herself from a repugnant racial epithet in a passage from the original Shaw play that generated a spontaneous ovation on opening night.

Despite the revamp, On the Rocks remains unwieldy - long-winded with a pair of love subplots that seem as perfunctory as ever. But, in a paradox that would please Shaw, Healey's divergence from the original text in fact brings us closer to its spirit.

This is perhaps the nearest to what it was like to see a new Shaw play in his heyday, the thrill of a sparkling and sometimes startling storm of ideas provoking debate and discussion rather than passive reverence in the audience. It's an exciting start to another welcome shift in course at the Festival under Maxwell.

On The Rocks continues at the Shaw festival through October 8.

On the Rocks: A Political Comedy