Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Do politics and the playhouse go together? For Bernard Shaw they most certainly did. As a playwright with a message he saw the theatre as the ideal medium for conveying his view of life, which was essentially socialistic. The theatre was to Shaw a latter-day temple of the arts within a community.
But Shaw was, of course, multi-voiced, not only through the characters he created but also in his own persona as public speaker, essayist, tract writer and author of works on political economy. Much of the thinking that is expressed in his non-dramatic works is contained also in his plays.
This work offers a readily accessible means of looking at the nature and the progression of Shaw's thinking. All the plays included in the major canon are reviewed and, except for brief plays and playlets (which are grouped), they are presented in sequential order.
Table of Contents
Shaw joins the London intelligentsia -- Shaw joins the Fabian Society -- Fabian essays in socialism : Shaw as editor and essayist -- The Fabian tracts : Shaw as tract writer and editor -- Shaw and the theatre -- A new theory of drama and a new philosophy : major critical essays and the preface to three plays by Brieux -- Plays unpleasant -- Plays pleasant -- Plays about empire : Three plays for Puritans and The admirable Bashville -- Creative evolution comes to the theatre : Man and superman--a comedy and a philosophy -- Aspects of twentieth-century society presented in the drama -- The playwright with the Fabian touch : Fanny's first play -- The drama in brief -- A time of definition -- The politics of war and of peace -- A new arena : What I really wrote about the war -- Two plays written before the First World War : Androcles and the lion and Pygmalion -- Playlets about marriage and sexual deviance -- Playlets written during the war -- Heartbreak house : a fantasia in the Russian manner on English themes -- Back to Methuselah : a metabiological pentateuch -- A widening of vision -- The years of acclaim -- "The most important book since the Bible" : The intelligent woman's guide to socialism and capitalism -- "The League of Nations" : Shaw visits Geneva -- Shaw's last Fabian tract -- A new politicization of the drama and a new theatrical venue -- Saint Joan : a chronicle play in six scenes and an epilogue -- Two political extravaganzas : The apple cart and Too true to be good -- Two more plays in partnership : On the rocks and The simpleton of the unexpected isles -- Life outside politics : Village wooing and The millionairess -- A minor playlet : The six of calais ; and two major plays : Geneva, and "In good King Charles's golden days" -- A critical question remains unanswered -- The world's mentor -- Everybody's political what's what? : a political finale -- The last years of a playwright -- Two post-atomic plays : Buoyant billions and Farfetched fables -- Shakes versus Shav : a puppet play and a conclusion.