It comes across like the fruits of a collegiate bull session as to what the Garden of Eden story represents. Set just after World War I, when Shaw wrote the play, it hinges too heavily on obscure politics of the period, with Tom Key and Chris Kayser as squabbling former prime ministers. Similarly, Adam and Eve have English accents and Stuart Culpepper, as Shaw himself, reads contemporaneous speeches and letters to introduce the plays. Back to Methuselah has no through-line of character and plot, with the sections linked by Shaw's rather bizarre notions of longevity, as well as some effectively Swiftian satire on art, war, politics and human nature. Theater Emory uses considerable ingenuity in staging Methuselah, but despite its flashes of brilliance, its many airy debates get the better of it.
Individual sections can be fascinating, but life is too short for seeing the whole thing.
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