The Hereford Times

Pitch-perfect Pygmalion

10:53am Tuesday 21st August 2007

THE bones of the story are familiar to anyone who has seen My Fair Lady, but George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, the inspiration for the musical, has none of the sugar-coating applied to the film.

Peter Hall's stunning revival of Pygmalion, showing at Malvern Theatres until Saturday, is as pitch perfect as Eliza Doolittle becomes under Henry Higgins' tutelage.

The first three acts hit some sublime comic moments, with Tony Haygarth a mesmerising Alfred Doolittle, as Henry Higgins (Tim Pigott-Smith so good you can't see the acting) sets about transforming Eliza into a woman who can pass as a duchess, his masterpiece'.

As Eliza, Michelle Dockery, too, was utterly convincing, embodying dignity and vulnerability, both before and after her transformation.

Higgins' total refusal to recognise that Eliza might have feelings of her own, and is not simply a piece of ivory to be sculpted as the mythical Pygmalion did when he created Galatea, sets the seeds for the heartbreak of the last two acts.

This is unmissable theatre - engaging, entertaining, thought-provoking and laugh-out-loud funny and, for a play written in 1912, surprisingly contemporary in its refusal to go for the happy ending and its inevitable conclusion that the creation has outstripped her creator.

Pygmalion runs at Malvern Theatres until Saturday, August 25. To book, call the box office on 01684 892277 or visit www.malvern-theatres.co.uk.