“What is life but a series of inspired follies?” –George Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion
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photo by Ashley Garrett
Pygmalion
NYC 2019 | Boston 2018
Written by George Bernard Shaw
Directed by Eric Tucker
Bedlam’s Pygmalion shines a contemporary light on Shaw’s allegorical classic. With South Asian actors portraying both Doolittles, Bedlam “slices to the core of a classic text with wit and verve and show-off’s delight.”
Meet the cast
Central Square Theater, Cambridge Production 2019
Grace Bernardo
(Mrs. Pearce / Clara Eynsford Hill / Parlour Maid)
Grace Bernardo is an actor, singer, and theatre maker based in NYC. She most recently made her Off-Broadway debut in Bedlam’s Uncle Romeo Vanya Juliet. Other New York credits include Romeo and Juliet (Bedlam, FoST), Twelfth Night (Modern Shakespeare Project), Radium Prototype (The Tank), The Visitors, The Comedy of Errors, The Reigning Princess of Pop, and readings by Kimberly Pau, Michael John Garcés (Cornerstone Theater-LA), and Tatyana Khaikin. She has worked with such directors as Anne Bogart and Konstantin Raikin, and been both an actor and mentor for the Young Playwrights Festival at the O’Neill Theater Center. In 2018, she also filmed a television pilot and national commercial for two major networks and was edited out of both, so don’t be fooled by this. Training: Furman University, National Theater Institute (MXAT), SITI Company. Thanks to the Bedlam team and my miraculous family.
Edmund Lewis
(Mrs. Higgins / Freddy Eynsford- Hill)
Edmund Lewis is very happy to be back in Cambridge, having appeared in the 2015 Elliot Norton Award winning productions of Bedlam’s Saint Joan (here at CST) and The Tempest (at A.R.T.) Most recently, he played Colonel Brandon in Bedlam’s hugely successful Off-Broadway run of Sense & Sensibility as well as numerous characters in the east coast premiere of Steven Sater’s New York Animals. Edmund is an original member of the acclaimed Bedlam company, having acted in the original runs of Saint Joan and Hamlet (both at the Access Theatre and Off-Broadway at the Lynn Redgrave Theatre) in addition to Twelfth Night and What You Will (at the Abingdon Theatre.) Other New York credits include Sackville & Mr. Harris in The Libertine (at the Chernuchin–also directed by Eric Tucker); Mark in The Philadelphia, Kafka in Words, Words, Words and Sir Richard Attenborough in Time Flies (Bang Theatre Collective) and the Horny Delivery Guy in 95% Chance They’ll Wind Up Like Larvae (NY Fringe). Edmund can also be seen in his friend Gregory Abbey’s web series, Marriage & Other Tragedies, as well as in Andrew Lawton’s short film Have You Seen Calvin? which will be premiering at various film festivals this year.
James Patrick Nelson
(Colonel Pickering / Mrs. Eynsford-Hill)
Off-Broadway: Three Sisters with Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard, A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Bebe Neuwirth and Christina Ricci, Ivanov with Ethan Hawke and Joely Richardson (Classic Stage Company), Rutherford and Son (Mint Theater Company), The Death of Bessie Smith (New Brooklyn Theater), A Blanket of Dust (Flea Theater), Bedlam’s Pygmalion (Sheen Center). NYC: Life x 3 (New Light Theater Project), The Maids (Outliers Theatre Company), Old Familiar Faces (NYC Fringe – Innovative Theater Award nomination), The Second Sun (Hudson Guild and Signature Center). Regional Theater: Bedlam’s Sense and Sensibility (American Repertory Theater, Folger Theater – Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Ensemble), Pericles (Berkeley Rep), Peter and the Starcatcher (Playhouse on Park), The Duchess of Malfi (Actors’ Shakespeare Project), Galileo (Central Square Theater), Romeo and Juliet, All’s Well That Ends Well, Knight of the Burning Pestle, A Christmas Carol (American Shakespeare Center). Film/TV: “Adam” (actor/screenwriter), “The Second Sun” (actor/screenwriter), “Love in Kilnerry”, “Being”, “The System”, “In Between Men” (NYTVF), “War of the Dads” (BIFF – Best Comedy Short). He is currently developing two more feature films and a television series. He is the co-author of “Speak What We Feel,” a forthcoming autobiography of the actor Brian Murray. Education: BFA Boston University School of Theater, London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. SAG-AFTRA, AEA. www.james-patrick-nelson.com
Vaishnavi Sharma
(Eliza Doolittle)
New York credits: Pygmalion (Bedlam), The Seagull and Sense & Sensibility (Bedlam), Queen Of The Night (The Diamond Horseshoe), This Side Of Neverland (The Pearl Theatre), The Iliad (Lucille Lortel Theater), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Blessed Unrest), Brainpeople, written and directed by Jose Rivera (New School For Drama). Regional credits: The Death Of The Novel (San Jose Repertory), Around The World In 80 Days (Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival). Film/TV: “Mr. Robot” (USA), “The Leftovers” (HBO).
Eric Tucker
(Henry Higgins)
Eric Tucker Wall Street Journal Director of the Year 2014. Off Broadway: Bedlam’s Sense and Sensibility (Lortel nom, Best Director, Drama League nom, Best Revival); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Drama League nom Best Revival, WSJ Best Classical Production 2015; NY Times Critics Pick), Bedlam’s Saint Joan (NY Times/Time Magazine top 10; Off Broadway Alliance Best Revival 2014), Bedlam’s Hamlet (NY Times Top 10; Time Out NY and Backstage Critics Pick), Tina Packer’s Women of Will; The Belle of Belfast. For Bedlam: Dead Dog Park, New York Animals (World Premiere by Steven Sater/Burt Bacharach), Twelfth Night and What You Will (NY Times Critics Picks), The Seagull (WSJ Best Classical Production 2014) and Sense and Sensibility (NY Times top 10; NY Times/Wall Street Journal/Time Out Critics Pick), Saint Joan and Hamlet (NYC and Tour; Elliott Norton Outstanding Visiting Production and Outstanding Ensemble, Boston Globe Top Ten). Other: Sense and Sensibility (The Folger), Copenhagen (Underground Railway Theater), A Midsummer Night’s Dream , The Two Gentlemen of Verona (HVSF), The Libertine (IRNE nomination, Best Director). Hamlet (with William Hurt), Mate (The Actors’ Gang), Macbeth (Best Overall Production and Best Director noms LA Weekly). Eric received his M.F.A. from the Trinity Rep Conservatory. He resides in New York City where he is the Artistic Director of Bedlam.
Michael Dwan Singh
(Alfred Doolittle)
Michael Dwan Singh is an artist, community organizer, and producer based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. An experienced multi-instrumentalist, Singh has brought to life numerous events across the Northeast with his vibrant and unique playing of the dhol, tabla, oud, and piano. He is a co-founder/organizer of Hindie Rock Fest: a music festival celebrating South Asian American artists from across the country. He also organizes Subcontinental Drift Boston, a long-running monthly open mic that nurtures South Asian creative community in the greater Boston area. In his decade-long career as a producer and recording engineer with production house Desi Standard Time, Singh has worked closely with artists and podcasters across multiple genres–such as Huntington Theatre, Navarasa Dance Troupe, Almirah Radio Hour, among others.
Creative
Central Square Theater, Cambridge Production 2019
Eric Tucker
Director
Les Dickert
Lighting
Alexei Glick
Wardrobe
Sara Hutchins
Assistant Stage Manager
Charlotte Palmer-Lane
Costumes
Hilary Rappaport
Dramaturg
Brian M. Robillard
Stage Manager
PRODUCTION HISTORY
2019
Central Square Theater
Boston, MA
January 31–March 3, 2019
2018
The Sheen Center
New York, NY
March 16–April 22, 2018
Reviews
What Critic's Are Saying About Pygmalion
When Bedlam slices to the core of a classic text with wit and verve and a show-off’s delight, it’s doing what the company does best… lots of Bedlamite fun throughout.”
A hundred and five years after its première, George Bernard Shaw’s play remains a triumph, eliciting gasps and guffaws, thanks to this production by the experimental Bedlam company.”
Director Eric Tucker has woven smart, relevant touches into his exceptionally performed, highly entertaining, must-see production of Shaw’s classic.”
Brilliant! … The drama is beautifully brought to life with great ingenuity by Director and Performer Eric Tucker. It is great acting and directorial vision that make Bedlam’s zesty production of Pygmalion such a success.”
★★★★ DELIGHTFUL SHAW.”
Sharma, in an exquisitely dexterous performance … raw and vibrant, exultant and unignorable.”
As always with Bedlam, this slimmed-down revival, in which six actors cover 10 speaking parts, is joltingly original.”
Bedlam’s very unique vision makes a trip to the beautiful Sheen Center imperative for anyone who appreciates an audacious yet respectful adaptation of a classic.”
The entire Bedlam cast is, as usual, superb. But two cast members are especially inspired hires — Vaishnavi Sharma as Eliza Doolittle and Rajesh Bose as her father Alfred P. Doolittle. The inclusion of performers of Indian descent adds the issue of race (and colonialism and immigration) to the textual ones of class and gender.”
Gallery
A look into various productions of Bedlam's Pygmalion
