The compelling eloquence and deeply penetrating psychology of Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara are more than enough reason to see this play as soon as you possibly can.  In addition, UA’s rendition of Shaw’s work gives even more benefits to seeing this powerful production.  Major Barbara’s story is one of truly amazing characters, characters whose identities and ideas Shaw crafts with some of the most brilliant dialogue ever written.  Sonequa Martin portrays the plays namesake, Major Barbara Undershaft, with excellent command of the role.  Major Barbara is an overly optimistic moralist and member of the Salvation Army who comes face-to-face with the reality of the world which is personified by her father and head of a cannon foundry, Andrew Undershaft (Steve Ray).  Martin does an exemplary job of allowing the slow realization of her anxiety with the world creep into her character as the show progresses.  Initially, she appears immensely naïve and overconfident, but throughout the play gains a colder air - the result of her contact with her father.  However, despite the excellent job that Martin does and the fact that Barbara is meant to be the play’s central figure, Steve Ray playing her father steals the show with his portrayal of one of the most intriguing and convincing characters ever designed for the stage.  Ray’s mastery of the dialect combined with his ability to convey the power and deep-seeded logic of Undershaft thrust him to the spotlight of the play, as you may find yourself at a loss attempting to undermine the entrancing words of this character.
           The sound and the set design are very well interwoven as the set was used to create most of the sounds outside of the words.  The set portrays the stark distinction between the rich and the poor, one of Shaw’s most significant themes, by displaying the upper class characters in the forefront while the poorer characters remain trapped in the factory-like background.  The lighting is not extremely dynamic, but this can be expected for a play of this nature which relies not on immense action but on slow psychological development.  Most of the interesting light choices also folded over into the set as the harsh colors of the background are highlighted by the lighter tones of the forefront.
With some of the most well-developed dialogue in the history of drama, Major Barbara gets off to a relatively slow start but builds up into a truly engulfing and devastating experience which depicts Shaw’s ability to steamroll the norms of morality with his mastery of the written word.  The direction of Major Barbara does a superb job of staying true to Shaw’s ideas and places large emphasis on capturing what it was that Shaw was trying to say.  The director also does an excellent job of keeping the characters unique and separate, as all the actors did their part to create very interesting side characters.  Overall, UA’s production of Major Barbara is a very good rendition of a truly magnificent play.  A-