Augustus Does His Bit:-
Only Mr. Shaw could do this - live during harrowing, exciting, uncertain times when future seemed brilliant one moment and bleak another, when a huge war was complicated by a revolution in a huge, huge nations sprawled across eastern half of Europe and all of north Asia, when kingdoms fell down and royal families were assassinated and aristocrats fled their homes and countries and lived lives of penury in greatly strained circumstances and still tried to maintain their haughty demeanor, when middle and upper classes were uncertain if their own servants would rise up and slay them all over when asleep, and colonial rules were beginning to totter with independence movements gaining momentum - only he could live through all this, and take a look at it with a seemingly close focus and paint a seemingly sarcastic, ridiculing portrait of his own side, and yet come out making a reader and a viewer adoring the very people we were all laughing at a moment ago.
The short play is set in the battlefield of the first world war somewhere in the background, with a typical slightly dense upper- upper middle class Augustus attempting to do his best for his nation, saying all the right things with complete sincerity and yet be naive enough to be fooled by a woman of upper class who has arrived to spy, to take away important papers that lie openly on his desk in the belief that everyone shall be British and play cricket, and not lie or spy while looking like a lady or a gentleman.
But it is all right after all - she is merely there to win a bet with his boss, which she does very easily, and leaves the bumbling Englishman to take care of the affairs pretty much representative of his ilk, his nation - and to do all right after all.
Wednesday, February 26, 2014.
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Androcles and the Lion:-
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Annajanska, the Bolshevik Empress:-
A comedy look at the revolution where instead of the gore and massacres of real events there is a princess of the realm travelling dressed up as an officer of the military, which leads people to conclude she is kidnapped by the officer; what she intends is to take over the revolution, and since the various people now serving the revolution and attempting to adapt to the new order of the day of everyone supposedly being equal are at heart still very much devoted to her, there is every chance she will succeed, and so become the Bolshevik Empress.
January 21, 2014.
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Arms and the Man:-
What seems obvious might after all not be so, and those that are seemingly snobbish and haughty might be not as affluent after all as those that seem casual or even comic. those that speak of love and are rewarded for their bravery might have never experienced either.
And then there is Switzerland, the beautiful land with snow and meadows and chocolate and cheese, and contradictions - a country that never fought a war in recent history but has always hired out mercenaries to every nation.
September 10, 2008.
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Caesar And Cleopatra:-
Here is a fresh look at Cleopatra as the young girl she must have been, compared to the much older Caesar - and while it is delightful in seeing a petulant young pretty girl getting her education rather expensively, through life and war, it is also a scathing commentary on various issues around war and morality and dealing with enemy, with Caesar above his fellow men - and women - providing them insight about why it was wrong what they did wrong.
Most delightful remains the prologue, a monologue by the Egyptian god Ra, addressing the audience disdainfully.
A sample - "O you compulsorily educated people!"
Monday, September 22, 2008.
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Candida:-
Revolutionary, as much else by Mr. Shaw, this work, about a luminous woman with her own mind and strength and wisdom - perhaps much like your wife or mother, at that - and entirely worthy of more than reading. About love and truth about love, and about marriage. About strength, and about one's responsibility.
Once it was understood without hypocrisy that a man looked for a wife who could make a home for him, and a woman had to make the best possible choice at every moment, either gambling on getting a better offer, or taking the best she had, in marrying a man who could provide for the home she would make. Few were lucky to find lvoe as well, at the same time - most did the best they could, and things have not changed in this respect, only there is more hypocrisy in name of love.
Love is not so easy to either find or chooose or live with.
Love might very well be a man too young to provide a family for the woman whom he fell in love with - she might be married, with a family, if she is lucky, not still waiting and dispirited. Will she then choose him? Or will consevative values win and she advise the younger man, the lover, to go find soemone appropriate?
If she does, it might just be that she has wisdom and courage to name the real reasons for her decision, and explain them. A woman - a wife and mother, in potential and instinct even when not de facto - chooses the weaker one, to care for and to protect with all she has to give, which is love and care and understanding and more.
A scrawny young poet, and a respected much loved minister, who does the woman choose? Or does she have to choose between them?
Monday, September 22, 2008.
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Captain Brassbound's Conversion:-
For a long time this was a very favourite play and that merely means when you have lived so much more and read as well, other works add to the favourite lists.
It is an amazing play, beginning with what might be - or should be - a common fear in minds of all colonial masters traveling in parts they misruled once; a bandit capturing and kidnapping a small party of travellers and promising to sell the lord of the group to a dreaded ruler for beheading after a few games.
And from this dreadful start, it then proceeds into a delightful play, with one pompous man (the ex colonial ruler sort, naturally) brought down by one of his own party - his sister-in-law, and the bandit outsmarted by her kind and sympathetic but shrewd dealing with the situation, so he comes out looking like a hero who saved them, in fact.
One of the lines - "it becomes clear that an agitated man pacing furiously cannot win against a woman knitting calmly" - of course this is as I remember it after the few decades it has been since I read it yet again for pleasure. He wrote it much better, of course.
Saturday, September 27, 2008.
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The Devil's Disciple:-
True goodness need not be certified by a faith or an institution that claims sole rights to mediate with powers above and absolve people from sins. Adhering to an institution of such nature does not guarantee goodness of a person, and equally, one does not turn devil against one's own true nature simply by rebelling against such an institution,
When it comes to it, a man of noble spirit goes with the soul, and never mind his repudiation of institutions that claim rights to heaven.
Friday, February 21, 2014.
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The Doctor's Dilemma:-
When it comes to a choice of only one patient you can save, who do you choose - is it the rogue with an attractive wife, or a sincere poor colleague who did much good and helped the poor and has no money left?
Sunday, September 21, 2008.
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Fanny's First Play:-
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Getting Married:-
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Great Catherine:-
Shaw is no worshiper 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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How He Lied to Her Husband:-
I seem to have lost a review of this play, a most favourite one, that I remember - vividly - writing, only a few weeks ago about this play, and while this is not the first time it has happened it is difficult to think of how it could have.
This play is one of the most delightful ones penned by the writer and it is completely unlike anything anyone (outside old British social life) might imagine. One of the most wonderful plays by Mr. Shaw, full of quite unexpected turns when one is in the world of literature but quite normal in real life, which is what makes it hilarious and sobering.
A very talented and romantic poet who is in love with a beautiful woman, who wishes nothing as much as seeing her every evening for a session of theatre and dinner or at least reading poetry to her that is written for her, in praise of her exquisite beauty, and is ever ready to do anything his love might demand of him.
Only, she is married, and to a very rich man who gives her everything she could wish for materially and socially but is no romantic poet, or at any rate not a man of words. On the other hand he is not stingy about providing her with an expensive social lifestyle with dinners, parties, artists invited and theatre and carriages, jewellery. And so on. Still, he is no poet. Is he literate, is hard to remember from the play. Does he appreciate her beauty more than in terms of his own pleasure, one doubts to begin with.
There is the whole setting - the very beautiful and wealthy Aurora who is married to a common businessman although able to have a social life of consorting with various artists and so forth.
And then the play begins to unfold. The husband, the very practical and very much bourgois man who has provided his wife with everything she could ever wish for in terms of wealth and social life, has now rumoured to have found out about the poet and the wife. Someone has told the husband about the poet's writing extensive poetry every day about the wife, and the love (still platonic in fact) that is the soil for the poetry to grow from, and so on. And the wife has come to know about the husband having been informed, and she is frantic in worry about what will happen.
The poet who is in love with her, writing poems to her, willing to do anything for her, whether taking her our to theatre every evening or stay in and amuse her or be shot by her husband or elope with her, whatever destiny might have in store for the love of his very exilarated heights of romance. The poet is willing to do anything she wishes, while his own noble instinct is to accept the blame and confront the husband with the truth and walk off into the sunset with his beloved beautiful Aurora.
What comes next is the typical Shaw sequence of twists and turns that leaves one helpless in hilarious laughter while totally in sympathy with the poor poet. I have no intention of spoiling the delight of reading further by saying another word about what comes next, for those that have not read this yet. Any attempt to describe it will spoil it for the reader, so I shall desist.
Thursday, November 20, 2008.
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John Bull's Other Island:-
About the other English speaking island in Europe and the relationship between the two - England and Ireland, or rather Britain and Ireland; about their perceptions of themselves vs their perceptions of one another, and of matters of life and so forth in general. How English perceive Ireland romantically and yet would exploit it and the Irish people, how Irish would complain about the British but give them control of the land easily, and how each thinks the other quaint and ridiculous.
Perhaps it has occurred to others before, but is it possible Ireland makes Britain safer and more livable, being the buffer between Atlantic winds and waves and Britain, while Britain is surrounded by the warm gulf stream?
Sunday, January 19, 2014.
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Major Barbara:-
A delightful look at various prevalent notions and hypocrisies of the times - and realities as they are. Salvation Army, church, politics as a career, ethics of business; niceties of law that might make one illegitimate in UK or at least in England but not in Australia, much less anywhere else in the world; and inheritance vs competence, when it is about running a business.
US, particularly NRA of US (as in gun lobby) seem to have adopted the creed of one of the characters in this to an extent that poor Mr. Shaw could never have imagined - "seem to" being the key here. But on the other hand, who knows, he would perhaps have said that neither NRA of US nor he were wrong, and that any society that allows such happenings without curbing them with laws that made sense and protected children perhaps deserved the grief they allowed the arms manufacturers and dealers to let loose on them. And really US has much that is legal in US but illegal in Europe in many countries, or at least those that matter. Germany for example has outlawed any organisations or pictures to do with their past horror - but not US where those proliferate; so guns too, and the consequent stupidity of innocent persons and your own children massacred in their own homes and schools.
Gun lobby of US - and much else of the world - might claim they follow this very intelligent writer for ethics, but if you look at it with a scrutiny, actually, no they don't; they are doing precisely what the writer cautions against, that is, mixing politics and business - for example in deciding who they will or will not sell to (or allow to carry arms), whether on personal level in the country (men get license easily, women don't, even though they are far more in need of self defence, whether from personal attackers or home robbers and so on), or on global level about nations and gangs (here there is no need of examples - they are far too obvious, well known), therefore making it a mess - or at least helping politics do so.
That said, this is of course an extremely intelligent play as almost everything written by this writer is; this one deals with an arms dealer and the possible social embarrassment his family with aristocratic connections must go through - his son requires that the father help him without allowing it to be known, since he needs to have a social status - and various issues around the question, morality vs. arms manufacturer.
Saturday, July 10, 2010.
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The Man of Destiny:-
Napoleon.
Friday, July 9, 2010.
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Misalliance:-
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O'Flaherty V.C.:-
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Overruled:-
A couple in need of refreshing or rethinking a marriage in the comparatively restricted era a century ago when divorce was possible but socially not easy to live with, would likely take time away to think it over. If they of reasonable means it could mean going around the world on a pleasure cruise separately, and of course an earlier generation might simply have arranged separate bedrooms or - if they were higher or lower than middle class - have separate intimate lives with others outside the marriage a la French (upper class? not necessarily), too. But this era, beginning of open thinking and lives, and a bit more honesty, would prompt them to more honest solutions towards saving the marriage honestly or do whatever it is honestly.
Now if George Bernard Shaw is going to consider this question he naturally comes up with two couples that have gone their separate ways around the world and have not only come across one half of the other each but fallen in love, and to throw in more fun they have very different attitudes. One falls in love desperately but is shocked at the beloved wife of another takes it as not so difficult or immoral as long as they don't do anything physical, and another has exactly the opposite position.
Of course, post our first encounter with the first pair of lovers in quandary of what if whether, soon the two couples meet, the men discuss, and it is all funny if more intellectually when reading, but competent performers (one can imagine David Niven, Cary Grant, and women to match) might make audience roll in aisles with pain due to laughter too.
Of course, real life couples do not have so neat or happy solutions, there is far more pain and mess, but all the more reason to look to literature and its more visual experiences of theater and film and now television for some relief, some smiles, laughter, and forgetting of pains. In this as ever Shaw succeeds albeit with a bit more intellectual level than say Jeeves, or perhaps one might compare them on par, but this one certainly could serve the purpose.
Monday, February 24, 2014.
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Pygmalion:-
This is the original play that the very famous and popular "My fair Lady" is based on, except that was more of a sweet version, and this retains the original English, perhaps British or even Irish, taste - not sweet, not sour, not bitter or hot, but a little salt and some of that sixth taste that is called "kasaila" or "kashaaya" which means tea in the old medicinal sense.
Here at the end there is a very well written epilogue that explains why the professor does not propose to any woman or have any romantic affair with any woman (and certainly with no man either) - not as a sickness on his part, but as a matter of evolution, and he is very evolved indeed.
Unlike US of today the social norms of Britain then were quite different and sex was not a compulsory activity to prove one was normal, and for that matter normal was never defined as average, either.
So eccentricity was not only allowed it positively thrived and flourished, and benefited the society enormously. Men like the professor could devote their time and energy to their preferred pursuits. He does end up baffled and quite unable to escape Elizabeth Dolittle though.
Friday, July 9, 2010.
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The Inca of Perusalem:-
Shaw lived and wrote during times of great turbulence of more than world scale, of scale of history as well as world. Feudal era passing and ideas of equality of all humans (- then they said men, forgetting women are not always included, so almost a foot behind women followed with demands and questions re their equal rights, fought in most western nations with great rigorous opposition from men and often women who saw their privileges in riding on men's coattails slipping away if they had to be independent -) not only being put forth but seeming to take root, flourish, fly, and already establish in various places, with great revolutions needed to bring them to fore taking place in others.
So he wrote of things to come, things being thought and discussed, things seeming to come true, and human follies and natures and interactions making the live tragedies and horrors seem not only bearable but funny and hilarious, as often they must have been. Inca Of Perusalem is one such play.
The princess of the realm is modest and unable to insist on being treated with the due respect she ought to be paid by average and avaricious hotel managers, and it takes a smart and formidable young woman to set things right, so of course the princess cannot help employing her albeit she is a bit scared of the new maid. Then there is the question of the Inca who has sent a proposal to the princess on behalf of his son, and an emissary to meet her, in reality to inspect her to see if she is fit to be queen some day.
Only of course, as the readers know by now being accustomed to the device a century after such authors set the precedent, the emissary is Inca incognito and the young woman he meets and is browbeaten by and smitten by is the maid. Both however are smart, so everything turns out fine. Meanwhile the readers - and audience in theater if that is how one comes across this - have had fun.
Monday, February 24, 2014.
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The Philanderer:-
Women - and too, enlightened men - were in favour of women's education, property and voting rights, enfranchisement, suffragists demanding and chaining themselves. many identified these movements with left for obvious reasons - it seemed against interest of any conservatives to lose any source of free labour, and women just as slaves or colonial possessions were source of it.
But most people also misuderstood women's liberty and freedom first and foremost in the wrongest possible direction - one that would actually benefit men. Some people saw it coming and they were not all against women's rights - and Mr. Shaw was one such man.
With women free, and access to women granted freely to any man, those that had no honourable intentions were in heaven. They could play with women's hearts and discard them - all in name of women's freedom, since the misunderstanding was, it was about no chaperone watching over to make sure their real important rights were guarded - those related to just such men not destroying hearts and lives.
This is the story of just such a woman who has a heart and would hide it behind talk of freedom, so she can try to attract one playing with her heart, her subsequent - or even, consequent - heartbreak when it is clear he never had any intention that could be then called honourable (now the word has gone out of usage, almost), and the philanderer who nevertheless sees what havoc he has wreaked, with clear eyes.
Monday, September 22, 2008.
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The Shewing-Up Of Blanco Posnet:-
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You Never Can Tell:-
Often when one lets it go, rather than pursue the question, the answer quietly steals into awareness, and so it happened with this play. It took some time to try to remember what this title was related to - I was sure I had read and liked it, but no clue of any sort of a connection to a story from the title in memory. Until suddenly I remembered a play, and I think this is the one.
If I am right this is about the unexpected reconciliation of a family of an emancipated woman who took away her children when the husband - their father - whipping the eldest one, a little girl, was an immediate prospect.
The reconciliation happens when the eldest is a grown up young woman on verge of womanhood who is unsure of herself, and the other daughter a cheeky self confident youngster who has no qualms about putting any adult off balance with her astute observations, which the brother achieves in other ways.
Much hilarity, heartwarming and sometimes a little heartbreaking ensues while the unexpected encounter, subsequent meetings and very carefully arranged reconciliation happens.
For a special Shaw touch, there is the waiter, everyone's beloved confidante, who has a son at the bar.
Come to think of it the name is entirely apt - how could this play have any other name?!! Unless it was something as prosaic and yet uncommon as Sophronia's Family.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008.
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Mrs. Warren's Profession:-
Age old dilemma of society - "respectable"vs. the other side, and the need of one for the other. It must have of course been extremely controversial when it was written - and published - but this writer was always more than equal to any criticism and could always argue either side of a debate with reason.
This one is not a comedy, though, and one is presented with Mrs. Warren's side quite reasonably.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008.
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