BLOOMSBURG- "Getting Married" opens Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble's 28th season with a funny and thoughtful meditation on matrimony.

A prolonged case of cold feet unfolds between two characters, then spreads to almost everyone else onstage until they all question-or outright attack-the social institution.

In the abridged George Bernard Shaw play, a happily married Anglican bishop and his wife prepare to couple off their sixth and final daughter at their castle. But hours before the nuptials, the bride and groom each learn of some ramifications of marriage-he would be liable if her outspokenness brought a lawsuit, and she could become destitute if he were sent to jail for some future crime.

Meanwhile, other romantically entwined couples and trios find themselves at various stages of commitment.

Leo, a young woman, is in love with the dashing young St. John, but finds fulfillment in caring for her elderly husband Reggie. She wants both men and could become a bigamist.

Boxer, and army general and a traditionalist, cannot shake his infatuation with the happily unattached Lesbia. Nor can he reason her hesitation to marry, despite the subtle hint of her name. Ensemble Director Daniel Roth, who plays Boxer, barely lets his character utter her name, the pain of rejection tying his tongue.

The whole group sets about solving the "problem" of marriage, all of the blessing of ensemble member James Goode’s affable bishop. He reasons that their search will prove so frustrating, they will rush back to embrace marriage.

Though not one of Shaw’s best-known scripts, "Getting Married" enters the room as the national conversation on what defines marriage heats up. And the casts exuberant delivery makes Shaw’s 97-year-old thoughts on the topic seem fresh.

COMEDIC DUO

Each actor delivers a share of laughs, but the funniest moments come from guest artist Leonard Neil. As the stony and devout Reverend Oliver Cromwell Soames, he simply condemns marriage, urging the other characters to devote themselves to poverty and chastity. But he resigns himself to mildly insulting them as he is put to the task of drawing up some sort of legal contract to take the place of marriage.

Roth and ensemble member Cassandra Pisieczko make a fine comedic duo in their anti-chemistry as the general repeatedly breaks his promise to stop pursuing Lesbia.

Guest artist Michael Collins, a Bloomsburg University performance professor who has also acted with the ensemble, directs the show. The whole story takes place in the kitchen, the heart of so many domestic deliberations. That leaves little room for action, apart from some flourishes of small familial movements, such as various characters dipping their fingers in the icing of the wedding cake.

The dialogue and shifting relationships are the focus here, anyway, and they make the 2 and 1/2-hour story move quickly. The show includes a ten-minute intermission.

Harsh lighting and Eastern chant music accompany a jarring monologue by ensemble member Elizabeth Dowd toward the end of the play. The staging does the job of underscoring the importance of the passage, but it drags the viewer from a pleasant comedy in angry polemic.