George Bernard Shaw
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Using intriguing characters and sparkling dialogue, George Bernard Shaw explored ideas and issues that transformed the conventions of British theater. "Don Juan in Hell" showcases the master's art at its best. An episode from Act Three of Man and Superman, "Don Juan in Hell" is often presented independently of the rest of the play. Rooted in the Don Juan legend--particularly as it appears in Mozart's opera Don Giovanni--this dream sequence forms a...
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Caesar and Cleopatra is a play written in 1898 by George Bernard Shaw that depicts a fictionalised account of the relationship between Julius Caesar and Cleopatra. It was first published with Captain Brassbound's Conversion and The Devil's Disciple in Shaw's 1901 collection Three Plays for Puritans. It was first performed in a single staged reading at Newcastle upon Tyne on 15 March 1899, to secure the copyright. The play was produced in New York...
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G. B. Shaw (1856-1950) wrote "The Perfect Wagnerite" as a philosophical examination of Richard Wagner's epic four-opera cycle, "Der Ring des Nibelungen" ("The Ring of the Nibelung"). A tremendously accomplished dramatist himself, Shaw seemed perfectly poised to turn his critical eye on Wagner's 19th century masterpiece. Wagner completed "The Ring" in 1853, after decades of effort. A work of such ambition takes much unpacking, and so Shaw offers us...
47) Widowers' Houses
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First performed in 1892, "Widower's Houses" was the first of Shaw's plays to see the stage. This play was included in a collection of plays called "Plays Unpleasant", named so because Shaw's intention in writing them was not to entertain, but to raise awareness in certain areas of social concern. The source of social concern here in this play is the income derived from slum housing and the play focuses on the rift it forms between the two main characters,...
48) Press Cuttings
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A room in the War Office on 1 April 1912. General Mitchener is in a state of considerable anxiety about the number of Suffragettes chaining themselves to government buildings. He has had all the railings removed, but is informed by an orderly that another suffragette has padlocked herself to the door scraper. Surprisingly, he has received a letter from the Prime Minister, Balsquith, telling him to release the woman and let her into the building. When...
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"Pygmalion and Other Plays" is a collection of eleven of George Bernard Shaw's most studied and performed plays. The impact made by the Irish playwright, political activist, and Noble Prize-winner on Western theater and culture cannot be overstated. The plays contained in this collection showcase his genius and creativity and it is not hard to understand why his works continue to influence generations of writers and actors. Included are such frequently...
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A choice selection of one-act plays from the Nobel Prize for Literature and Academy Award winning playwright George Bernard Shaw. Includes: • Augustus Does His Bit: A True-to-Life Farce • The Dark Lady of the Sonnets • How He Lied to Her Husband • The Inca of Perusalem: An Almost Historical Comedietta • Overruled • Press Cuttings
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Originally published in George Bernard Shaw's 1901 collection "Three Plays for Puritans" and first performed in 1900, "Captain Brassbound's Conversion" is the drama of its title character, a sort of refined latter-day pirate who resides in Morocco. When two jaded English tourists, Sir Howard Hallam, a judge of the criminal bench, and Lady Cicely Waynflete, his sister-in-law, arrive at the Moroccan coast and endeavor to explore the interior, Captain...
53) Plays Pleasant
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Plays Pleasant George Bernard Shaw - "Plays Pleasant" is a collection of four plays by George Bernard Shaw, first published in 1898: Arms and the Man; Candida; The Man of Destiny; and, You Never Can Tell.
One of Bernard Shaw's most glittering comedies, Arms and the Man is a burlesque of Victorian attitudes to heroism, war and empire. In the contrast between Bluntschli, the mercenary soldier, and the brave leader, Sergius, the true nature of valour...
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Major Barbara is, thought to be one of Shaw's most controversial works. While trying to give a realistic presentation of Christianity, many accused him of blasphemy. Major Barbara Undershaft thought it hypocrisy that her church accepted charity from companies, such as a whisky distiller, and eventually decided that it would be more fulfilling to bring salvation to people, who had plenty of vices, the people in need. Shaw intended to show that no matter...
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George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) is revered as one of the great British dramatists, credited not only with memorable works, but the revival of the then-suffering English theatre. Shaw was born in Dublin, Ireland, left mostly to his own devices after his mother ran off to London to pursue a musical career. He educated himself for the most part, and eventually worked for a real estate agent. This experience founded in him a concern for social injustices,...
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An Unsocial Socialist, Shaw's last written novel was published in 1887, having been written in 1883. The tale begins with a humorous description of student antics at a girl's school then changes focus to a seemingly uncouth labourer who, it soon develops, is really a wealthy gentleman in hiding from his overly affectionate wife. Tinged with self-satirical overtones this novel shows both the positive and negative aspects of Socialism in a comically...
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The question seems a hopeless one after 2000 years of resolute adherence to the old cry of "Not this man, but Barabbas." Yet it is beginning to look as if Barabbas was a failure, in spite of his strong right hand, his victories, his empires, his millions of money, and his moralities and churches and political constitutions. "This man" has not been a failure yet, for nobody has ever been sane enough to try his way. But, he has had one quaint triumph....
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"The Admirable Bashville" is a short play based on Shaw's fourth novel "Cashel Byron's Profession," which was written in 1882 and later serialized. Though the novel was generally overlooked in England, it became surprisingly successful in the United States some years later. The novel and the play tell the story of Cashel Byron, a world champion prizefighter and his attempts to woo wealthy aristocrat Lydia Carew while hiding his illegal profession...
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"How He Lied to Her Husband" is the story of Henry Apjohn how is having an affair with Aurora Bompas, the wife of Teddy. "The Fascinating Foundling" is the story of how a lawyer and his aide unwittingly help two very picky people, when it comes to dating, find each other. Also contained in this volume is "The Glimpse of Reality".