Henry Higgins, confirmed old bachelor and professor of phonetics, makes a bet that he can pass off a simple Cockney flower girl as a Duchess by devising a new speech for her. His subject, the bedraggled gutter-snipe Eliza Doolittle, submits to the challenge to improve her situation in life. This comedy, romance, creation story, satire or whatever you choose to see is based on the Greek myth of the master sculptor Pygmalion who carved out of ivory such a fair and superior woman that he fell in love with her and brought her to life.
On a cold winter night, a group of people from up and down the social ladder are thrown together unexpectedly while sheltering from a storm. Among them are Henry Higgins, celebrated professor of phonetics, and simple flower girl Eliza Doolittle. Fascinated and yet repulsed by Eliza’s uncommonly horrid accent and speech, Higgins boasts to Colonel Pickering, another scholar of linguistics, and the assembled crowd that he could pass her off as a Duchess in six months if he’d get a chance to teach her how to speak properly.
The next day Eliza shows up at Higgins’ house and announces that she has decided to take him up on his offer and has come to take lessons. Colonel Pickering is intrigued and bets Higgins the entire cost of the experiment, and Higgins accepts with delight and more than just a hint of bravado. Thus Eliza comes to join Henry Higgins’ eccentric household.
Despite some setbacks and embarrassing moments as Eliza takes her first steps in the world of the middle class, she quickly adapts to her new speech and mannerisms. Yet Higgins’ experiment sets another process in motion that he had not quite foreseen and cannot attempt to control.
December 9-10, 2011
Theater Ins Blau
Director: Myrthe Brouwer
Assistant director: Eva Forbes Wijman
Stage Managers: Svetlana Skripkina, Xiao Fang Chi
Producer: Anne Fleur den Haan
Artistic Director: Eva Forbes-Wijman
Treasurer: Liduine de Graaff
PR Officer: Myrthe Brouwer
Set: Inge Dame, Folmer van Schooneveld, Lotte Lemstra
Costumes: Myrthe Brouwer, Marijn de Jong, Shannon Ernst
Props: Iris de Wolf
Hair/Make-up: Catrin Simons, Demetra Hadjiyiannis
Lighting: Joris Visée
Runner: Blaise Bachelier
Voice coaching: Martina Noteboom, Katinka Zeven, Tony Foster, Paula Blank, Mili Gabrovšek
Poster design: Nas Levy
CAST
Eliza Doolittle: Charlotte Norton
Henry Higgins: Maarten Stolk
Colonel Pickering: Jonathan Todd
Mrs Higgins: Alexandra van Kampen
Mrs Eynsford Hill: Myrthe Bouwhuyzen
Clara Eynsford Hill: Anna McGrail
Freddy Eynsford Hill: Shamai Cohen
Mrs Pearce: Marijn de Jong
Nancy the parlourmaid: Jacqueline Bookstein
Simple Bystander: Elize den Hollander
Septuagenarian Bystander: Eva Forbes Wijman
Sympathethic Bystander /
(Thomas the newspaper boy): Jacqueline Bookstein
Sarcastic Bystander: Shannon Ernst
Many Thanks To:
Leun Wong, Siofra McComb, Djurre Brouwer, Manon Foster-van der Loo, Peter van Dolen, Rachel Hicks.