Auditorium Theatre 2018-19 Issue 4 Eifman Ballet

18 | AUDITORIUM THEATRE 2018-19 | April 11 - May 19, 2019 MICHAEL KHOURY Plenty of Pygmalions : The Inspiration Behind Boris Eifman's New Ballet In May, the celebrated Russian dance company Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg comes to the Auditorium Theatre to give the North American premiere to artistic director Boris Eifman’s new ballet The Pygmalion Effect . While the ballet itself is brand-new, and Eifman's take on it is wholly innovative, The Pygmalion Effect is inspired by an ancient Greek myth that has been adapted many times before, in the form of a Broadway musical, a classic play, and even a romantic comedy from the 1990s! Have you encountered any of these adaptations of the story before? The ancient Greek Myth Pygmalion, a sculptor who once vowed that he would never marry because he was so dedicated to his art, creates a beautiful ivory statue that he names Galatea. His masterpiece is so beautiful that he attempts to turn the statue into a real woman, dressing her up in clothing and jewelry. He prays to Aphrodite, the goddess of love, who is so amazed by Pygmalion’s work that she answers his prayers and brings the statue to life. The story has a happy ending — Pygmalion and Galatea get married and spend the rest of their lives together. George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion The heralded Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw premiered his version of Pygmalion in 1913. His play introduced the canonical characters Henry Higgins, a phonetics professor, and Eliza Doolittle, an impoverished street flower seller with a heavy Cockney accent who wishes to “be a lady in a flower shop 'stead of selling at the corner of Tottenham Court Road.” Higgins makes a bet with his colleague Colonel Pickering that he can teach Eliza to lose the accent and “pass her o— as a duchess,” not a flower seller, in six months time. Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg in The Pygmalion Effect Pygmalion and Galatea, depicted by the French painter Jean-Baptise Regnault