MAN AND SUPERMAN
The worthy opponents in this battle of the sexes are Ann Whitefield (played by Lisa Kaminir) and Jack Tanner (Peter Aylward). The conflict starts with the death of Ann’s father, whose will has appointed Jack as Ann’s guardian, or coguardian rather, along with the stodgy, very 19th-century Roebuck Ramsden. This poses a problem for Jack, a self-styled “revolutionist” and iconoclast, who rejects everything Ramsden believes in. But more importantly, Jack fears Ann’s way of doing whatever she pleases as if she were just following the wishes of her mother, her late father, or, now, her newly appointed guardians. Only Jack recognizes this hypocrisy in Ann; everyone else (with the exception of Ann’s mother) thinks she’s just as sweet as can be. Jack, you see, knows Ann for who she is, and, perhaps because of that, Ann is out to get him.
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There is only one subplot in Man and Superman, but there are as many levels as you’d care to interpret. This production hits on a number of them: man versus woman (of course), man versus society, woman versus society, the individual versus the life force, and the evolution of man into superman. Shaw’s crammed a lot into this play, and he didn’t just stumble on the battle of the sexes as the appropriate vehicle. All conflicts and themes converge upon a common intersection — marriage. Marriage is the common denominator of society, the cradle of evolution, and an acid test of the individual. Shaw has a lot to say on the subject.
