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January
2003 |
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Transferred to www.oscholars.com with minor revisions
January 2009 |
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The Associate Editor of THE
OSCHOLARS with responsibility for helping with this issue of SHAVINGS was Julie A. Sparks of the Department of
English, University of Arkansas-Monticello. |
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‘Oh, Shaw! That’s the man who
smokes Jaeger cigarettes!’ |
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Note: Subscribers
to this Journal have their names printed in bold, and can be contacted
through us at oscholars@gmail.com |
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1.
The Plays
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In this section we shall try to cover productions of
Shaw’s pre-1901 plays, and news of productions of these (with offers of
review) will be most welcome. The plays are Arms and the Man (1894),
Cæsar and Cleopatra (1898), Candida (1895), Captain Brassbound’s Conversion
(1899), The Devil’s Disciple (1897), The Man of Destiny (1895), Mrs Warren’s
Profession (1893), The Philanderer (1893), Widowers’ Houses (1892), You Never
Can Tell (1895). (Dates of composition, not first performance.) Wilde is
known to have attended the first night of Arms and the Man (20th April 1894).
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Sir Peter Hall’s production of Mrs
Warren’s Profession opened at the Strand Theatre, London on 2nd October and runs to 1st February 2003. |
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Director |
Peter Hall |
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Mrs
Warren |
Brenda Blethyn |
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Vivie
Warren |
Rebecca Hall |
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Mr
Praed |
Peter Blythe |
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Sir
George Crofts |
Richard Johnson |
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Frank
Gardner |
Laurence Fox |
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The
Revd Samuel Gardner |
James Saxon |
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Design |
John Gunter |
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Lighting |
Peter Mumford |
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2.
Shawlines
In this section we will print all the news that we find or, better still,
are sent. We especially welcome news of Shaw on curricula.
We also wish to record articles and papers relating to the earlier Shaw,
and news of new editions of Cashel Byron’s Profession (1886), An
Unsocial Socialist (1887), The Quintessence of Ibsenism (1891), Love
Among the Artists (1900), as well as other related material.
The ShawChicago Theatre Company is producing Jitta’s Atonement 4th to 27th January at the Ruth Page Center
for the Arts, Chicago.
Michael Friend has staged a number of
Shaw’s plays at Shaw’s Corner, Ayot St Lawrence. Full details of all the
productions, cast lists, photographs, and touring plans for 2003, can be found
at Error! Hyperlink reference not valid..
Saint Joan will be produced in July.
The International Shaw Society discussed at the Shaw Summit last August is
taking shape. There is now a website (which contains an enormous amount
of useful material) at http://chuma.cas.usf.edu/~dietrich/iss.htm,
the creation of the indefatigable Dick Dietrich.
The Shaw Season at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, is announced. The
plays for 2003 will be Widowers’ Houses (15th May to 4th October) and Misalliance
(10th April to 2nd November) .
3.
A Shaw Anthology
The George Bernard Shaw Collection at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research
Center, the University of Texas at Austin.
The Shaw Collection is the largest and most comprehensive single-author
gathering in the Ransom Center. The bulk of the Shaw rare books and
manuscripts was acquired with the T.E. Hanley Library. The book collection
contains over 1,200 books, pamphlets, and periodical appearances by Shaw; some
are amusingly inscribed to theatrical colleagues, friends, and admirers. The
related manuscript collection contains a large number of Shaw’s plays in
versions varying from drafts to rehearsal and directors’ prompt copies, along
with hundreds of letters to and from Shaw and his wife Charlotte, agreements
with publishers and producers, as well as diaries, scrapbooks, and financial
records.
4.
Bibliographies
GBS for
Wildëans: A Bibliography of 19th century Shaw.
This will be a cumulative biography as references come to hand.
Beerbohm, Max: Around Theatres.
London: Rupert Hart-Davis 1953.
This carries reviews of plays published in the Saturday
Review, namely The Devil’s Disciple (‘"G.B.S." at
Kennington’, 7th October 1899, pp.38-41; and the 1907 revival ‘Mr. Vedrenne’,
26th October 1907, pp.481-4); You Never Can Tell (12th May 1900,
pp.78-9); the 1901 reprint of Cashel Byron’s Profession (‘A Cursory
Conspectus of G.B.S.’, 2nd November 1901, pp.171-5); Mrs Warren’s
Profession (‘Mr Shaw’s Tragedy’, 1st February 1902, pp. 191-5); the 1907
revival of The Philanderer (9th February 1907 pp.449-51); and the 1908
revival of Arms and the Man (4th January 1908, pp.491-3). There
is also a review of the published edition of Three Plays for Puritans (The
Devil’s Disciple, Cæsar and Cleopatra and Captain Brassbound’s
Conversion) (‘Mr Shaw Crescent’, 26th January 1901, pp. 118-22).
Outside our current range are reviews of The Doctors’ Dilemma, Getting
Married, John Bull’s Other Island, Major Barbara, Man and Superman,
Misalliance, and Pygmalion.
Beerbohm, Max:
More Theatres. London: Rupert Hart-Davis 1969. This volume contains
Beerbohm’s pieces for the Saturday Review that he omitted from the
first edition of Around Theatres (1924), an omission followed in the
1953 edition.
This volume opens with three squibs against Shaw ‘G.B.S.
Oblige’ (9th April 1898, pp.17-21), ‘Mr Shaw’s Profession’ (14th May 1898,
pp.21-4) and ‘Mr Shaw’s Profession II’ (pp.25-7, 21st May 1898). These
contain allusions to Arms and the Man (p.25), Candida (p.26), Mrs
Warren’s Profession (pp.21-4, 25), Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant (p.11),
The Devil’s Disciple (pp.21, 335), The Philanderer (p.21), Widowers’
Houses (21, 25), You Never Can Tell (pp.25, 26).
There are further references to Mrs Warren’s
Profession (p70), Arms and the Man (p267), Cæsar & Cleopatra
(p.271),
The volume also contains a review of Captain
Brassbound’s Conversion (29th December 1900, pp.335-7). From beyond
our period is The Admirable Bashville (pp.580-2).
Borsa, Mario: The
English Stage of To-day. Translated from the original Italian and
edited with a prefatory note by Selwyn Brinton M.A. London: John Lane
The Bodley Head 1908. This has one chapter on Shaw.
Chapter IV:
G.B.S.
Innes, Christopher (ed.):
The Cambridge Companion to George Bernard Shaw. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press 1998. This contains four essays on the
younger Shaw:
Gordon, David J.: Shavian Comedy and the Shadow
of Wilde;
Kelly, Katherine E.: Imprinting the
Stage: Shaw and the Publishing Trade 1883-1903;
Marker, Frederick J.: Shaw’s early plays;
Powell, Kerry: New Women, new plays,
and Shaw in the 1890s.
Kennedy, J.M.
English Literature 1880-1905. London: Stephen Swift 1912. This
contains one chapter on Shaw.
Chapter VI: George Bernard Shaw.
Laurence, Dan H.: Bernard
Shaw, Collected Letters 1874-1897. London: Max Reinhardt 1965.
Laurence, Dan H.: Bernard
Shaw, Collected Letters 1898-1910. London: Max Reinhardt 1972.
Meisel, Martin: Shaw and the
Nineteenth Century Theater. Princeton University Press 1963; new
edition New York: Limelight Editions 1984 ISBN 0-87910-017-6.
Morgan, A.L.: Tendencies of Modern
English Drama. London: Constable 1924. This contains three
chapters on Shaw:
Chapter VI.
Shaw the Iconoclast–Dramatic Iconoclast
Chapter VII: Shaw the Iconoclast–Social Iconoclast
Chapter VIII: Shaw the Philosopher.
A list of websites kindly provided
by Richard Dietrich (University of South Florida):
BERNARD SHAW SOCIETY WEB
SITE (see illustration below):
http://chuma.cas.usf.edu/~dietrich/shawsociety.html
UNIVERSITY PRESS OF FLORIDA SHAW SERIES
WEB SITE:
http://www.upf.com/shaw.html
http://www.upf.com/se-shaw.html
SHAW BIZNESS WEB SITE:
http://chuma.cas.usf.edu/~dietrich/shawbizness.html
INTERNATIONAL SHAW SOCIETY WEB SITE:
http://chuma.cas.usf.edu/~dietrich/international_shaw_society/index.html
THE SHAW FESTIVAL
http://www.shawfest.com
Other websites include
http://www.infography.com/content/272906973619.html
(a bibliography)
http://www.therightside.demon.co.uk/quotes/shaw/
which has 123 quotations from Shaw, but irritatingly does not source them.
http://www.georgebernardshaw.com/
is The Bernard Shaw Information & Research Service, which has as its
Patrons Dame Diana Rigg, Dame Wendy Hiller, Brian
Cox, Richard E Grant and Jerry Hall, a remarkable list.
http://www.phnet.fi/public/mamaa1/shaw.html
also gives an unsourced list of ‘quotes’ – ‘one-liners’ – presented in a
table. The best use of it is to check all those sayings ascribed to Wilde
that are in fact by Shaw.
http://www.shawchicago.org is the
site of the Shaw Chicago Theatre Company, specialising in Shaw’s plays.
http://www.theheritagetrail.co.uk/notable%20houses/shaws%20corner.htm
has two pictures of Shaw’s house and a brief account.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/programmes/centurions/shaw/shawbiog.shtml
gives a biography of Shaw as it appeared to the BBC compilers.
http://mobydicks.com/lecture/BernardShawhall/wwwboard.html
is a discussion group, with the somewhat brassbound greeting ‘Ahoy mate!
Welcome to the new Bernard Shaw lecture hall! The old Bernard Shaw
lecture hall may be found at http://mobydicks.com/lecture/BernardShawhall/wwwboard23.html
Visit the Bernard Shaw Live Chat, and use the forum below to schedule a chat
session.’
The Independent Shavian appears three times a year and is sent
to all members of the Bernard Shaw Society at no charge as part of their
membership dues.
5.
Tailpiece
‘Shaw makes an excellent analysis of Wilde, declaring that Oscar was
"incapable of friendship", though not of the most touching kindness,
on occasion.’
— Frank Harris: Bernard
Shaw, An Unauthorised Biography based on firsthand information, with a
postcript by Mr Shaw. London: Victor Gollancz 1931. 3rd impression
November 1931 p.266.
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