As anyone who’s seen George Bernard Shaw’s plays knows, they’re filled with talk, talk and more talk.
The amount of fun depends on how well this torrent of dialogue is handled. Happily, in the Pearl Theatre’s revival of his wittily droll “Misalliance,” it’s delivered masterfully.
Shaw originally subtitled his work “A Debate in One Sitting,” and it is a long sitting indeed, running nearly three hours. Set in the conservatory of an English country house, it features his typical insightful observations about politics, marriage and the eternal battle of the sexes.
The heart of the play is provided by Hypatia (Lee Stark), the restless daughter of underwear magnate John Tarleton (Dan Daily) and the unhappy fiancée of Bentley (Steven Boyer), the sniveling son of Lord Summerhays (Dominic Cuskern).
Hypatia is waiting, as her blustery father puts it, for “adventure to drop out of the sky.” It does so, literally, in the form of the crash-landing handsome aviator Joey (Michael Brusasco) and his free-spirited, Polish co-pilot Lina Szczepanowska (Erika Rolfsrud), who tries to teach Tarleton how to pronounce her name in one of the funniest scenes of the play.
Things get more hilarious with the arrival of a gun-wielding young man (Sean McNall), looking for revenge on Tarleton for seducing and abandoning his mother years earlier.
As the wild-eyed intruder accosts the family, Tarleton assures them, “It’s not bad language — it’s socialism.”
Under the expert direction of Jeff Steitzer (who recently played the admiral in Broadway’s “Mary Poppins”), the ensemble delivers sterling performances, particularly Rolfsrud as the sexually liberated aviatrix who puts the men in their places.
“Misalliance” may have been written 100 years ago, but it feels as relevant as ever in this endlessly entertaining rendition.