The Apple Cart, On the Rocks, Geneva

Plays Political

BERNARD SHAW was born in Dublin in 1856. After his arrival in London in 1876 he became an active Socialist and a brilliant platform speaker. He wrote on many social aspects of the day: on Common Sense about the War (1914), How to Settle the Irish Question (1917) and The Intelligent Woman&rsquo;s Guide to Socialism and Capitalism (1928). He undertook his own education at the British Museum and consequently became keenly interested in cultural subjects. Thus his prolific output included music, art and theatre reviews, which were collected into several volumes such as Music in London 1890&ndash;1894 (3 vols, 1931); Pen Portraits and Reviews (1931); and Our Theatres in the Nineties (3 vols, 1931). He also wrote five novels and some shorter fiction, including The Black Girl in Search of God and Some Lesser Tales and Cashel Byron&rsquo;s Profession, both published in Penguin&rsquo;s Bernard Shaw Library. 
 
He conducted a strong attack on the London theatre and was closely associated with the intellectual revival of British theatre. His plays fall into several categories: &lsquo;Plays Pleasant&rsquo;; &lsquo;Plays Unpleasant&rsquo;; comedies; chronicle-plays; &lsquo;metabiological Pentateuch&rsquo; (Back to Methuselah, a series of plays); and &lsquo;political extravaganzas&rsquo;. Bernard Shaw died in 1950.

While some of Shaw&rsquo;s earlier plays are still performed, his later plays, such as the ones in this volume, are barely known. As the collective title indicates, the themes here are political; yet, frankly, it is doubtful how seriously we can now take Shaw as a political thinker. Despite writing in the 1930s, he has little to say of the nature of totalitarianism: although he satirises Fascist dictators in &ldquo;Geneva&rdquo;, the satire is disappointingly mild. Neither did Shaw appear to foresee (on the evidence of these plays, at least) the imminent collapse of the British Empire.But it is Shaw the dramatist rather than Shaw the political philosopher who still holds our attention &ndash; even in plays as explicitly political as these. He had a sharp intellect and a quirky sense of humour, and his dialogue still glints and sparkles: he couldn&rsquo;t write a dull line if he tried. No matter how serious the themes he addresses, the crispness of his writing and his lightness of touch still scintillate.Shaw seems, perhaps unfairly, out of fashion nowadays. But even in these lesser-known works, he demonstrates his matchless ability, still undimmed, to provoke and to entertain.

Misalliance and the Fascinating Foundling

This volume features the play Misalliance, which explores the incongruities of human nature and family life, and Shaw's one-act burlesque, The Fascinating Foundling.

The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet and Fanny's First Play

&lsquo;A tearing, flaring, revivalist drama&rsquo; was how Desmond MacCarthy described The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet. Set in America&rsquo;s Wild West and aptly subtitled &lsquo;A Sermon in Crude Melodrama&rsquo;, this single-act play concerns the conversion of a horse thief desperate to &lsquo;keep the devil&rsquo; in him and die game. Published in 1909, it brought Shaw into conflict with the Lord Chamberlain of England, who banned it on the grounds of alleged blasphemy, and it was twelve years before the play was performed in a London theatre. In an interview Shaw commented, &lsquo;I am sorry that Fanny&rsquo;s First Play has destroyed the cherished legend that I am an unpopular playwright &hellip; for the first time I have allowed a play of mine to run itself to death &hellip; And the worst of it is it will not die.&rsquo; First performed in 1911, the play is a delightful farce in which Shaw debates some of his favourite subjects: middle-class morality, marriage, parents and children and women&rsquo;s rights. And, deliberately concealing his authorship, Shaw took the opportunity to satirize contemporary drama critics who, he claimed, &lsquo;do not know dramatic chalk from dramatic cheese when it is no longer labelled for them.&rsquo;

"in Good King Charles's Golden Days"; Buoyant Billions; Farfetched Fables; Shakes Versus Shav; Why She Would not

Last Plays

George Bernard Shaw was born in Dublin in 1856. Although essentially shy, he created the persona of G. B. S., the showman, satirist, controversialist, critic, pundit, wit, intellectual buffoon and dramatist. Commentators brought a new adjective into English: Shavian, a term used to embody all his brilliant qualities. 
After his arrival in London in 1876 he became an active Socialist and a brilliant platform speaker. He wrote on many social aspects of the day: on Common Sense about the War (1914), How to Settle the Irish Question (1917) and The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism (1928). He undertook his own education at the British Museum and consequently became keenly interested in cultural subjects. Thus his prolific output included music, art and theatre reviews, which were collected into several volumes such as Music in London 1890-1894 (3 vols, 1931); Pen Portraits and Reviews (1931); and Our Theatres in the Nineties (3 vols, 1931). He also wrote five novels and some shorter fiction, including The Black Girl in Search of God and Some Lesser Tales and Cashel Byron's Profession, both published in Penguin's Bernard Shaw Library. 
He conducted a strong attack on the London theatre and was closely associated with the intellectual revival of British theatre. His plays fall into several categories: 'Plays Pleasant'; 'Plays Unpleasant'; comedies; chronicle-plays; 'metabiological Pentateuch' (Back to Methuselah, a series of plays); and 'political extravaganzas'. Bernard Shaw died in 1950.

In Good King Charles's Golden Days: a true history that never happened. A discussion play; the issues of nature, power and leadership are debated between King Charles II ('Mr Rowley'), Isaac Newton, George Fox and the artist Godfrey Kneller. 
Buoyant Billions: a comedy of no manners. 
Farfetched fables. Shaw's thoughts simplified. 
Shakes vs. Shav. Puppets portray Shaw and Shakespeare. The play comprises a comic argument between the two playwrights, an intellectual Punch and Judy. 
Why She Would Not. His final play.

Too True to be Good, The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles, The Millionairess

Plays Extravagant

This is a collection of the plays of George Bernard Shaw that includes &quot;The Millionairess&quot;, &quot;Too True to be Good&quot; and &quot;The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles&quot;.

The Doctor's Dilemma

Shaw's humorous satire of the medical profession.

Dan Laurence

George Bernard Shaw

Androcles and the Lion is a 1912 play written by George Bernard Shaw. 
 
Androcles and the Lion is Shaw's retelling of the tale of Androcles, a slave who is saved by the requited mercy of a lion. In the play, Shaw makes Androcles out to be one of many Christians being led to the Colosseum for torture. Characters in the play exemplify several themes and takes on both modern and supposed early Christianity, including cultural clash between Jesus' teachings and traditional Roman values.

Dan Laurence

Books by Dan Laurence

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