Bedlam Returns With George Bernard Shaw's PYGMALION

Underground Railway Theater is proud to present Bedlam's Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw. Bedlam's Pygmalion runs from January 31 - March 3, 2019 and is directed by Bedlam Artistic Director Eric Tucker. The press performance is Monday, February 4 at 7:30PM.

Bedlam returns to Central Square Theater for the third time in the past five seasons! Fresh off a critically-acclaimed Off-Broadway run, Bedlam's Pygmalion comes to Central Square Theater. Eric Tucker's "revelatory" (Village Voice) and "playful" (New York Times) production brings Eliza Doolittle, Professor Higgins (performed by Tucker), and a cast of characters to life with just six actors. Immerse yourself in this gritty, fresh interpretation of George Bernard Shaw's classic, exploring the negotiation of power through sexual politics.

Bedlam's Pygmalion plays at Central Square Theater, 450 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge from January 31 to March 3, 2019. Tickets may be purchased by calling 617.576.9278 x1, at the Central Square Theater box office, or online at CentralSquareTheater.org

About George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was born in Dublin, the son of a civil servant. His education was irregular, due to his dislike of any organized training. After working in an estate agent's office for a while he moved to London as a young man (1876), where he established himself as a leading music and theater critic in the eighties and nineties and became a prominent member of the Fabian Society, for which he composed many pamphlets. He began his literary career as a novelist; as a fervent advocate of the new theatre of Ibsen (The Quintessence of Ibsenism, 1891) he decided to write plays in order to illustrate his criticism of the English stage. His earliest dramas were called appropriately Plays Pleasant and Plays Unpleasant (1898). In his later plays, discussion sometimes drowns the drama such as with Back to Methuselah (1921). Even so, this was the time period he worked on his masterpiece Saint Joan (1923), in which he rewrites the well-known story of the French maiden and extends it from the Middle Ages to the present. The Doctor's Dilemma (1906), facetiously classified as a tragedy by Shaw, is really a comedy the humor of which is directed at the medical profession. Candida (1898), with social attitudes toward sex relations as objects of his satire, and Pygmalion (1912), a witty study of phonetics as well as a clever treatment of middle-class morality and class distinction, proved some of Shaw's greatest successes on the stage. It is a combination of the dramatic, the comic, and the social corrective that gives Shaw's comedies their special flavor. Shaw's complete works appeared in thirty-six volumes between 1930 and 1950, the year of his death.

About Eric Tucker
Eric Tucker (Director, Henry Higgins) Wall Street Journal DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR 2014. Off Broadway: Uncle Romeo Vanya Juliet; Pygmalion; Peter Pan; Vanity Fair; Bedlam's Sense and Sensibility (Off Broadway Alliance Award, Lortel nom, Best Director, Drama League nom, Best Revival, 4 Helen Hayes awards including Best Director and Best Production); A Midsummer Night's Dream (Drama League nom Best Revival, WSJ Best Classical Production 2015); Bedlam's Saint Joan (NY Times/Time Magazine top 10; Off Broadway Alliance Best Revival 2014); Bedlam's Hamlet (NY Times top 10); Tina Packer's Women of Will; New York Animals (World Premiere by Steven Sater/Burt Bacharach), Twelfth Night and What You Will (NYT Critics Picks); The Seagull (WSJ Best Classical Production 2014). Other: The Rivals (BRT); The Merry Wives of Windsor (Two River), Disney's Beauty & The Beast (OSF); Pericles (APT, WSJ Best Classical Production 2017); Copenhagen (Central Square Theater), The Two Gentlemen of Verona (HVSF), Mate (The Actors' Gang). Eric resides in New York City where he is Artistic Director of Bedlam.

In addition to Mr. Tucker, the other members of the cast of Bedlam's Pygmalion are:

Grace Bernardo* (Mrs. Pearce, Clara Eynsford Hill, Parlour Maid) 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) was last seen in Bedlam's Uncle Romeo Vanya Juliet at A.R.T. NY. A founding member of Bedlam, he has appeared in the company's acclaimed Off-Broadway hit Sense & Sensibility as well as Saint Joan, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, What You Will, New York Animals and Peter Pan. Additional credits: They Promised Her The Moon (Miranda Theatre Company, directed by Valentina Fratti); The Tempest (A.R.T., co-directed by Aaron Posner and Teller); The Libertine (Chernuchin Theatre, directed by Eric Tucker); The Philadelphia; Time Flies; and Words, Words, Words (Bang Theatre Collective).

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. 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).

Michael Dwan Singh (Alfred Doolittle) 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.

The artistic and design team includes Charlotte Palmer-Lane (Costume), Les Dickert (Lighting Design), Eric Tucker (Sound Design), with Elizabeth Rocha and Joseph Stallone (Properties Coordinators). Brian Robillard is the Production Stage Manager. Sara Hutchins is the Assistant Stage Manager.

Central Square Theater (CST) opened in 2008 through a groundbreaking partnership between The Nora Theatre Company (The Nora) and Underground Railway Theater (URT). This collaboration has been called a model for the arts community (The Boston Foundation, Culture is our Commonwealth, and The National Collaboration Prize), as it has paired two like-minded performing arts organizations in a strategic alliance with the City of Cambridge and MIT, resulting in the development of a state-of-the-art performing arts center in the heart of Central Square. CST has a mission to support its two theaters-in-residence while maintaining a shared vision of artists and audiences creating theater vital to their communities. The Nora and URT have a combined track record of over 50 years producing award-winning theater. Located in Central Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and steeped in its multiracial, intergenerational, ethnically and economically diverse neighborhoods, the CST theater experience exudes a democratic energy where classes, races and age groups come together to be inspired, entertained and energized.