The public is invited to attend a single performance of the two-actor play "Dear Liar" in the Antilles School auditorium at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, March 18. The drama, based on four decades of letters exchanged between playwright George Bernard Shaw and a leading actress of his era, Beatrice "Stella" Tanner, will precede a series of theater workshops for students at the Frenchman's Bay school.
Both the play and the workshops, set for Monday through Wednesday, March 19-21, are being presented by the Hartt School of the Performing Arts at the University of Hartford in Connecticut.
In a time before e-mail and chat rooms — or even telephones — there was sometimes such a thing as a "chaste affair" carried out via correspondence between sophisticated, self-restrained adults. From 1899 to 1939, such a relationship existed between the Irish dramatist Shaw and Tanner, better known as Mrs. Patrick Campbell.
Shaw not only wrote more plays than Shakespeare; he also gained fame as a literary critic, a free thinker and an advocate of socialism, women's rights, economic equality and a simplification of English spelling.
Tanner/Campbell, lesser known today, was the more famous of the two during part of their relationship. A British actress renowned for her portrayal of passionate, intelligent women, she won praise for her performances as Juliet, Hedda Gabler, Lady Macbeth, Mrs. Alving in "Ghosts," Clytemnestra in "Electra," and other "meaty" dramatic female roles. At the age of 68 and in need of funds, she made her screen debut in "Riptide," afterward appearing in several other films. However, the role which makes her immortal is that of muse to Shaw. It was she whom he had in mind as the ideal actress to portray Eliza Doolittle as he wrote "Pygmalion" – which would later inspire the musical "My Fair Lady."
Alan Dent published the collected correspondence of Shaw and Campbell in 1952. Six years later, from those exchanges (and decades before the more recently popular play "Love Letters"), Jerome Kilty constructed "Dear Liar" as an evening of theater.
In the course of the play, we see Shaw go from formal to gracious to passionate and spellbound by the woman he calls "the enchantress." The letters by these two brilliant people who loved language and each other span a broad range; droll and witty, amorous and passionate, volatile and cantankerous. Seattle Times theater critic Misha Berson described the exchanges as "passionate mash notes, accusatory rants, theatrical musings and, finally, sympathetic tidings from one aging icon to another."
For the Antilles performance, Alan Rust, the director of the Theater Division of the Hartt School, will portray Shaw, and Johanna Morrison will play Tanner/Campbell.
This will be the eighth workshop that Rust, an accomplished actor, director and educator, has brought to Antilles since he was invited to the school by the late Katharine Streibich in 1989. In connection with these visits, he has appeared in public performances locally of Shaw's "Don Juan in Hell," Bill C. Davis's "Mass Appeal" and South African playwright Athol Fugard's "A Lesson from Aloes."
Rust formerly taught at Ohio University, the North Carolina School of the Arts and the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. A past president of the American Theater Guild, he has appeared in numerous theaters throughout the United States and in Europe. His recent roles have included Charles in "Blythe Spirit," at Stage West, and Ernie in "It's a Wonderful Life," at the Cleveland Playhouse. Last summer marked his 20th season as artistic director of the Monomoy Theater on Cape Cod by directing "Inherit the Wind," appearing as Captain Hook in "Peter Pan," and playing G.B. Shaw opposite Julie Harris at Campbell in "Dear Liar."
Morrison has appeared in numerous stage productions in this country and Britain, as well as on television in such programs as "Diagnosis Murder," "Matlock," "Perry Mason," "One Life to Live" and 15 Brevard Orchestral Concerts on PBS. She and her husband, Malcolm Morrison, dean of the Hartt School, co-founded the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival.
Because of Equity actors' union restrictions and copyright laws pertaining to the play, there can be no admission charge for Sunday's performance. However, voluntary donations will be accepted to defray the cost of transportation and housing for the actors and workshop participants. The performance has received funding support from the V.I. Council on the Arts. Seating is limited and reservations are recommended. They may be made through Friday afternoon by calling Jackie Nelthropp at 776-1600.

Editor's note: Roger Lakins is head of the English Department at Antilles School.