LondonTheatre1 by John OBrien / August 10, 2025 ★★★★
Finding new ways to present the classics is both challenging and necessary, so Shaw’s 2020 pairing of two one-act plays by two of the greatest dramatists of all time (Anton Chekhov and George Bernard Shaw) is most welcome. As soon as I saw this, I wanted to see it, and my hunch has proved correct. Jonas Cemm, the director of Shaw 2020, is dynamic, determined and dedicated to his project. Shaw died in 1950, and so in 2020, his copyright expired, hence the name. Cemm aims to keep Shaw’s legacy alive and kicking by adapting, expanding and exploring the works. His master stroke is to juxtapose a Shaw alongside another work by a peer competitor.
In this case, he has pitched Chekhov’s The Proposal (1888), updated by producer and designer Bethany Blake, and Shaw’s one-act comedy Village Wooing (1933), edited by Cemm himself in 2021. Both pieces are about partner selection. Just how do we get paired off? What drives it? Who initiates it? How do we know who “The One” is? How can we be sure? No pun intended. The USP of this double bill is that both pieces are funny, witty and yet highly philosophical in intent. The Proposal is up first, a short but perfectly formed 45 minutes, and then after the interval, the main attraction, I think, Village Wooing, about an hour….
SHAW2020 Theatre Company 