The Washington Stage Guild continues its series of online presentations with a delectable Shavian bon bon to whet audience appetites for a return to in-person production in the fall. Following well-received performances of George Bernard Shaw’s Don Juan in Hell and The Devil’s Disciple, the Stage Guild offers another play by its “house playwright”: How He Lied to Her Husband.
The comedy, set in a London drawing room, is a witty look at the love triangle. Shaw called the play “a sample of what can be done with even the most hackneyed stage framework by filling it in with an observed touch of actual humanity instead of with doctrinaire romanticism.” Said to have been written by GBS in a matter of a few days, the play has often been interpreted as a kind of satirical commentary on Shaw’s own highly successful earlier play Candida, which one of the characters gets tickets to see.
Morgan Duncan, who returns to the Stage Guild after his long sojourn with The Capitol Steps, directs a cast of three (Her Lover, Her Husband, Herself) in this comic gem of a one-act. Says Duncan: “I feel like a lot of Mr. Shaw’s work is him looking at the work of another artist — Shakespeare, for example — and saying, ‘Yeah, that’s all well and good, but, here, let me show you what you could have written had you any real talent.’ The fascinating thing about How He Lied to Her Husband is that the work he’s reexamining is his own Candida!”
Jordan Brown (Her Lover) is on a mission to make his name known and to diversify white spaces in the DMV theater scene. Having graduated from Stevenson University in 2019, he is excited to join the Washington Stage Guild in this production.
Lawrence Redmond (Her Husband) happily returns to WSG. A Washington native and proud Actors’ Equity Association member, he last appeared for the Guild was in Greg Jones Ellis’s All Save One.
Julie-Ann Elliott (Herself) is excited to be working with Washington Stage Guild again, where she last crossed their boards as librarian Emily Reed in Alabama Story. She is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association.
How He Lied to Her Husband will be available to view on Washington Stage Guild’s YouTube channel anytime from Wednesday, May 19, 2021, at 8 PM until Sunday, May 23 at 8 PM. There is no charge to tune in, but donations will be gratefully accepted.
