Misalliance, Apple Cart, Getting Married, Widowers Houses, Great
Catherine, Too True to be Good, Glimpse of Reality, Passion Poison &
Petrifaction, Fascinating Foundling, Cymbeline Refinished, King's
People, Playlets of the War
Misalliance:-
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Apple Cart:-
When in heat of parliamentary debate a member is insulted for his race, he can point out much that is true - who is a native, and who is cultured, for instance.
A rational colleague may calmly point out that you are not white, but oatmeal at best. "Chinese call us Pinks; they flatter us". (In fact, the word in Chinese is not Pinks when they speak to other Chinese, it is "barbarian" or "foreign devil", when refering to race of European descent.)
A king might be tolerating a beautiful attractive mistress and far more at ease with the wife he is comfortable with.
When a popular monarch is persuaded to abolish monarchy it is just possible the monarch might stand for office and have all on office thouroughly routed.
Just a few of the gems from the play. Delightful as most work from the writer, and one of the most delightful at that.
Monday, September 22, 2008.
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Getting Married:-
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Widowers Houses:-
In a way this play is a companion of Mrs. Warren's Profession, both about money earned by a parent through unsavoury means of varying questionable repute, of course this one being far more common than the other both in practice and held not so often repugnant by society - rich society that is - but morally no less, in fact in some ways more, reprehensible.
Mrs. Warren's profession is held in n good repute anywhere in the world, but it can be argued that most people in that profession are not in it from choice as much as from either being kidnapped and brought into it or from necessities of survival of a family which often when needed to be provided by a woman she might find little or almost no recourse. When one is safe, moralising about another's circumstance is all very well; it is likely to be another story when it is your own child's survival in question and you have not much of a choice.
This one is about rich people who earn their living by providing housing bordering on slum to the poor and then charging extortion level rents while providing little or no amenities, and evicting those that default at short notice without care about if they could in fact survive.
And yet most rich could hardly stand a scrutiny about the roots of their wealth - if it is not opium or colonial (robbery) it might be something akin to this, or worse - it might be selling things that actually damage those that pay for them. Not just illegal substances, either - often legal substances can be just as bad for health, even lethal, and yet they take time to become known as dangerous or worthless at best. Even today that is true of much that forms multibillion industries, in much misused names of fun or beauty.
Friday, July 9, 2010.
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Great Catherine:-
Shaw is no worshipper of great persona of history, and The Great Catherine of Russia does not escape his caricature. She is shown here as a barbaric ruler of a barbaric huge powerful nation, charmed by sophistication of a mere lowly officer of the British embassy in her empire.
Every caricature has some truth distorted, and here the fact is Russia was and is a huge nation spreading from eastern one third of Europe to the very eastern edge of Asia, and as a matter of fact Alaska belongs to US only because the 99 year old lease was lost during the revolution. The great wilderness of Siberia would be a nation large enough to be among first ten if it were independent, and neighbouring Yakutia joins it in the large wilderness of deep heart of Russia. So the populace is varied, there are well over a dozen languages and many faiths. Uniting all this is no joke, and the greater of the Russian monarchs did it by commanding loyalty from their subjects as Catherine the Great did.
And yes, they did look to west for bringing some sophistication to the vast wilderness, and the court language was French, spoken even among themselves by the upper class, often at home as well. That their heart stays Russian can be no doubt, but they were no barbarians of this caricature, post Peter the Great who built St Petersburg.
Thursday, January 23, 2014.
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Too True to be Good:-
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Glimpse of Reality:-
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Passion Poison & Petrifaction:-
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Fascinating Foundling:-
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Cymbeline Refinished:-
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King's People:-
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Playlets of the War:-
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Misalliance:-
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.......................................................................................
Apple Cart:-
When in heat of parliamentary debate a member is insulted for his race, he can point out much that is true - who is a native, and who is cultured, for instance.
A rational colleague may calmly point out that you are not white, but oatmeal at best. "Chinese call us Pinks; they flatter us". (In fact, the word in Chinese is not Pinks when they speak to other Chinese, it is "barbarian" or "foreign devil", when refering to race of European descent.)
A king might be tolerating a beautiful attractive mistress and far more at ease with the wife he is comfortable with.
When a popular monarch is persuaded to abolish monarchy it is just possible the monarch might stand for office and have all on office thouroughly routed.
Just a few of the gems from the play. Delightful as most work from the writer, and one of the most delightful at that.
Monday, September 22, 2008.
.......................................................................................
.......................................................................................
Getting Married:-
.......................................................................................
.......................................................................................
Widowers Houses:-
In a way this play is a companion of Mrs. Warren's Profession, both about money earned by a parent through unsavoury means of varying questionable repute, of course this one being far more common than the other both in practice and held not so often repugnant by society - rich society that is - but morally no less, in fact in some ways more, reprehensible.
Mrs. Warren's profession is held in n good repute anywhere in the world, but it can be argued that most people in that profession are not in it from choice as much as from either being kidnapped and brought into it or from necessities of survival of a family which often when needed to be provided by a woman she might find little or almost no recourse. When one is safe, moralising about another's circumstance is all very well; it is likely to be another story when it is your own child's survival in question and you have not much of a choice.
This one is about rich people who earn their living by providing housing bordering on slum to the poor and then charging extortion level rents while providing little or no amenities, and evicting those that default at short notice without care about if they could in fact survive.
And yet most rich could hardly stand a scrutiny about the roots of their wealth - if it is not opium or colonial (robbery) it might be something akin to this, or worse - it might be selling things that actually damage those that pay for them. Not just illegal substances, either - often legal substances can be just as bad for health, even lethal, and yet they take time to become known as dangerous or worthless at best. Even today that is true of much that forms multibillion industries, in much misused names of fun or beauty.
Friday, July 9, 2010.
.......................................................................................
.......................................................................................
Great Catherine:-
Shaw is no worshipper of great persona of history, and The Great Catherine of Russia does not escape his caricature. She is shown here as a barbaric ruler of a barbaric huge powerful nation, charmed by sophistication of a mere lowly officer of the British embassy in her empire.
Every caricature has some truth distorted, and here the fact is Russia was and is a huge nation spreading from eastern one third of Europe to the very eastern edge of Asia, and as a matter of fact Alaska belongs to US only because the 99 year old lease was lost during the revolution. The great wilderness of Siberia would be a nation large enough to be among first ten if it were independent, and neighbouring Yakutia joins it in the large wilderness of deep heart of Russia. So the populace is varied, there are well over a dozen languages and many faiths. Uniting all this is no joke, and the greater of the Russian monarchs did it by commanding loyalty from their subjects as Catherine the Great did.
And yes, they did look to west for bringing some sophistication to the vast wilderness, and the court language was French, spoken even among themselves by the upper class, often at home as well. That their heart stays Russian can be no doubt, but they were no barbarians of this caricature, post Peter the Great who built St Petersburg.
Thursday, January 23, 2014.
.......................................................................................
.......................................................................................
Too True to be Good:-
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.......................................................................................
Glimpse of Reality:-
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.......................................................................................
Passion Poison & Petrifaction:-
.......................................................................................
.......................................................................................
Fascinating Foundling:-
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.......................................................................................
Cymbeline Refinished:-
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King's People:-
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Playlets of the War:-
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