In "Pygmalion", the latest production of the Boston Company of the Theatre Guild, Mr. Shaw once again expounds to the world at large wherein it errs and how it might be changed to suit his personal tastes. He is of course amusing, brilliant and didactic, and sometimes all three at once. But in a play so well known it is hardly justifiable to devote much space to its merits and defects. The idiosyncrasies of the author are inevitable and at times even soporific; the question for discussion lies rather in the art of the actors.

The first act with its Jovian disregard for the limitations of the stage was presented very effectively as far as the mechanics were concerned. The noises of a spring shower and the attending roar of the street were as convincing as could be expected when they could be heard above the shoutings of Miss Inescort vociferously acting the part of Eliza, the "good" flower girl. The other members of the cast presented themselves in a more or less clamorous fashion.

Shaw saves the second act with his usual entertaining conversation and a minimum of preaching. The Doolittle pere, played by the enthusiastic Mr. Dudley Digges, is a thoroughly adequate disciple of the "undeserving" poor, while Higgins and Colonel Pickering in the persons of Messrs. Cabot and Waram stand by in due admiration for the Shavian doctrines the jubilantly impecunious father of Eliza propounds.

The third act is highly hilarious, in spite of the aged device of the poor girl misplaying the Duchess. There is enough of the Shavian keenness and wit to make it one of the high spots of the play. It is in the part of the renovated Eliza displaying her new culture at tea that Miss Inescort retrieves her ostentatious display of vocal strength of the previous acts. Her highly phonetic and correct, "Not bloody likely" brings the act to a chaotic close.

The remaining two acts continue with a fair share of morality and wit, punctuated with several undeniable hints that Mr. Shaw could be quite sentimental if he could take his tongue out of his cheek long enough. But that would not be playing the part he has set aside for himself in all of his plays. So, in this play he ends with his usual quirk. There is a discourse on the evils of middle class morality, the verbose Doolittle is led to the noose of matrimony, Higgins returns to his phonetics, and Eliza remains a "good" girl.

On the whole the acting is adequate and everybody is amused. Unfortunately most of the past productions of the Theatre Guild have led one always to expect something superlative. The present effort obviously does not come up to this standard. It is good and even worth seeing in the midst of the Reading Period, but it lacks the distinction of ultra finesse which has established the Theatre Guild as the finest and most intelligent producers in America.