“Won’t you buy a flower from a poor girl? I’m bloody gorgeous.”
A comedy about snobbery, love, morality and prejudice, or how to become the star of a diplomatic reception in just three months.
Pygmalion is originally a figure from ancient mythology: a sculptor who created a statue of Aphrodite out of ivory and fell in love with his own work. The goddess granted his plea and brought the statue to life. The most famous treatment of this theme is undoubtedly the play by George Bernard Shaw.
Some might feel that the story of flower girl Eliza Doolittle and phonetics professor Higgins rather resembles the Cinderella fairy tale – a man from high society turns an ordinary girl into a lady. The famous musical version My Fair Lady made full use of this interpretation. Shaw, however, consistently protested against this romanticised version of the story. He called his play “Pygmalion” for a reason: Pygmalion is an extremely narcissistic sculptor, incapable of forming real contact, who creates a statue – a woman – in his own image. Shaw was a superb ironist: a man teaches a woman to speak, yet is unable to truly talk to her. He was also a rather harsh provocateur who enjoyed causing scandal; he even let Eliza express herself in very vulgar language – something utterly shocking on the Victorian stage. Such were the times.
Michal Lang’s production brings Eliza closer to the contemporary Czech audience, with her modest origins embodied in a North Moravian dialect (typical of one of the country’s former key heavy-industry regions). The classic is further updated through a number of references to steampunk aesthetics, not only in the scenography, but also in the costumes and props.
Directed by Michal Lang
Premiere: 7 March 2025 on the Main Stage
Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes, including an interval
