Heartbreak House

Synopsis

Set in Sussex, World War One. A group of assorted guests and family gather at the sprawling ship-like house of the eccentric octogenarian Captain Shotover where a distinct air of irregularity is evident and all normal codes of conduct and etiquette are strangely askew. Each of the assembled party has an individual agenda and is intent upon playing their cards entirely by their own rules. Shotover acknowledges his guests only when it suits him - and then only when he can tear himself away from his plans to obliterate the human race - while his two daughters consider adulterous flings with passionless lethargy. To cap it all - and making the situation even more absurdly offbeat - there's Billy the bewildered Burglar to consider. On the brink of moral bankruptcy the house is a seething tide of peculiar tensions, the emotional waves of which must surely break before the night is out...

Our Review:

13 July 2012

Here's an interesting contrast between two left-wing dramatists. If Brecht has become a playwright to name-drop, Shaw appears to have moved in the opposite direction. His plays were once the staple of repertory and amateur dramatic societies across the land but tend to be less fashionable these days.

Heartbreak House, Shaw's picture of an indolent, leisured class immured from any sense of morality and cut off from the rest of the country would have been far more shocking when first performed, nearly 100 years ago. The power has diluted over the years – even though there's plenty of evidence to show that the asset-strippers and hangers-on are still with us.

The main problem with the play is that Shaw presents us with caricatures. The gross exaggerations are even alluded to by Shaw himself – the “foreign office toff and the bloated capitalist” both get name-checked. The other problem is that Shaw can't resist a smart retort, and the political ...

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Latest User Review

Alison Jones - 5 August 2012:

I found this production which promised so much ,delivers so little in entertainment.I didn't know the play before seeing it and spent the hour and half first act desperate for it to end.It really wasn't a good choice with weighty dialogue,one dimensional characters and no action until the final 10 of the second,slightly less tedious,second act...

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