George Bernard Shaw's writing is sharp, funny and politically radical. Greg Hersov's production of Widowers' Houses is slick and amusing but as politically challenging as an episode of Jeeves and Wooster. In a way, this is not Hersov's fault - the plot is stuck firmly in its time (it premièred in 1892) and the characters are created to serve the plot - but it raises the question: what made Hersov choose a play that was written "to induce people to vote on the Progressive side at the next County Council election in London"?
Shaw's theme - exposing the financial chain binding "respectable" people to the dirtiest of (slum-landlord) dealings - can relate to today (think pension funds), but too obliquely to achieve his goal of forcing "the spectator to face unpleasant facts". In fact, the opposite happens. Ashley Martin-Davis's excellent period designs and wonderful costumes prettify this nasty story. Well-crafted performances exaggerate the comedy and distract from the cruelty of characters conniving in corruption for the sake of profit and pleasure. The result is that the play becomes a thing that Shaw would have abhorred - an amiable evening's entertainment.
