As its memorable and metaphorical characters stomp through the gray muck between good and evil, Gaye Jeffers’s portrayal of George Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara strikes the chord of human morality and rings a resounding tone of ambiguity.  The set, brilliantly constructed by Brian Ballif, hints perfectly at the coarse industrial poverty lying just below the exterior appearance of proper speech and proud society.  As a visualization of these colliding opposites, Ballif constructs an uneven stage which elevates individual characters as they rise and fall in the productivity of their determined rhetoric. 
     I must admit that I could not wait to hear Lady Britomart (Alicia Grubb) open her mouth every time she graced the stage.  Although credit should be given to Shaw’s brilliant wit, Grubb’s portrayal of
the walking contradiction in a bouffant was better than I imagined.  The Lady sent the audience chuckling without the slightest attempt or knowledge that she was doing so.  She represented the epitome of an appearance: well rehearsed traditions of behavior and speech without letting any of it become a bothersome reality.
        Major Barbara (Sonequa Martin) glows with the divine task of soul-saving, and her courage seems to match that of Joan of Arc.  No doubt she inherited her talent for unashamed persuasive speech from her father Andrew Undershaft (Steve Ray), who comes close to stealing the show like the soul he pockets from his protégé Adolphus Cusins (Thomas Azar) in the final scene.  Ray delivers his lines like Turkish delight—each word draws me in and leaves me wanting more.  This Mephistopheles would have roped Faust without a moment’s hesitation.  Undershaft aims his Nietzsche-inspired cannons at the absurdity of society’s emphasis on its own constructed morality.  As the giant rusty gears turn in the background, Undershaft shatters the façade of the Salvation Army’s compassionate drive to serve Heaven and reveals a system that bows before money like everything else.   
           I am thoroughly impressed with the University’s performance of Major Barbara.  Shaw’s penetrating motifs of right and wrong, the human will, and religious service preserve their poignancy in thispowerful production.