Candida (version 2)

A clergyman's wife must choose between her husband and a young poet who worships her as a goddess. So goes the simple setup of Shaw's 1898 comedy, but nothing about Candida is simple. The poet Eugene Marchbanks arrives convinced he's rescuing Candida from a dull domestic prison; her husband Reverend Morell believes himself her protector. Both men are wrong, and Shaw spends three acts dismantling their assumptions with devastating wit. The real revelation: Candida is the one who holds everything together, who manages her husband's career and ego while they debate her needs without her. When she finally speaks, her choice becomes a radical reframing of what strength and love actually mean. Written when Victorian certainties were crumbling, this play crackles with the energy of an era discovering that the "woman question" had no easy answers. It remains essential theater for anyone who suspects that the deepest truths about love are the most uncomfortable to hear.