A Famous Comedy About the Challenge of Not Falling in Love with Yourself
Pygmalion is originally a figure from ancient mythology—a sculptor who created an ivory statue of Aphrodite and fell in love with his own creation. The goddess answered his prayers and brought the statue to life. The most famous adaptation of this story is undoubtedly the play by George Bernard Shaw.
Some might see the tale of flower girl Eliza Doolittle and phonetics professor Henry Higgins as reminiscent of the Cinderella story—a high-society man transforms an ordinary girl into a refined lady. The famous musical adaptation My Fair Lady embraced this romantic interpretation wholeheartedly. However, Shaw vehemently opposed this romanticized version of his story. After all, he titled his play Pygmalion, a reference to the sculptor with an intensely narcissistic nature, incapable of forming genuine connections, who created a statue—a woman—molded in his own image. Shaw, a brilliant ironist, highlights a man who teaches a woman how to speak yet cannot truly communicate with her. A bold provocateur of his time, Shaw even gave Eliza outrageously vulgar lines—scandalous for Victorian audiences. Such were the times.
Michal Lang's production brings Eliza and Higgins into the present day, where the world is rife with pompous marketers and "speech doctors," as well as young women—partly naive, partly audacious—determined to break free from their circumstances.
Directed by: Michal Lang
World Premiere: March 7, 2025, in the Grand Hall