SHAVINGS
28

A Bulletin for George Bernard Shaw

JUNE 2008

News of the death of Dan H. Laurence reached us too late to be given just measure in Shavings 27, our February issue. We publish coverage here.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Editorial

2. The Plays

3. Shawlines

a. Conferences

b. Exhibition

c. Publications and Papers

d. Obituary

e. The Shrines

f. Musical Shaw

g. Posters

4. Echoes of Oscar

5. Bibliographies and Links

6. Shaw Associations

These are listed but information about them has been transferred to its own page.

7. Tailpiece

Click for the last issue of Shavings; click for the Table of Contents of this issue; click to return to the Shavings home page.

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Note: Subscribers to Shavings have their names printed in bold, and can be contacted through us at oscholars@gmail.com.

1. Editorial

Shavings is published at irregular intervals, dependent upon the accumulation of material. Chronologically, this is the seventh issue of Shavings to appear on www.oscholars.com and the sixth for which we are joined by our Associate Editor for Shavings, Barbara Pfeifer of the University of Vienna. The earliest issues were incorporated into THE OSCHOLARS but will eventually be excavated for this site. The webmaster for Shavings is Steven Halliwell as he is for all the pages of www.oscholars.com. We are continuing to overhaul the site and introduce new features. In particular we draw your attention to our growing Posterwall.

Readers of Shavings may participate in the discussion forum set up for all readers of the oscholars group of journals by clicking its icon . There is a short registration procedure, as with all such groups. This forum will also serve for posting notice of events that occur between issues of the journals, Calls for Papers etc. We now use this as an easy channel of communication to our readers: sending out mass mailings has all sorts of difficulties. Every care is taken to exclude spam and other unpleasantnesses

2. The Plays

In this section we try especially but not exclusively 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).

We have been improving our coverage, and can now be more active in commissioning reviews. This page has been growing, and as with all our journals, an amoeba like fission has become necessary. This is still experimental, but we are putting this section on a separate page. The features on this page also include links to reviews when we have them.

To reach it, click GBS

3. SHAWLINES

In this section we print all the news that we find or, better still, are sent. We especially welcome news of Shaw on curricula.

We also wish especially 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), The Perfect Wagnerite (1898), Love Among the Artists (1900), as well as other related material.

a. Conferences, Seminars, Lectures and Calls for Papers

.

SHAW SEMINAR IN BRIONI, June 2008: For information, please click here. If interested, please email dietrich@cas.usf.edu.

b. Exposing Shaw

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‘Facing the Late Victorians: Portraits of Writers and Artists’ from the Mark Samuels Lasner Collection, an exhibition which was on view at the Grolier Club in New York from 21st February to 26th April, included two portraits of GBS, a photograph by Emery Walker and the lithograph by William Rothenstein. The exhibition was curated by Margaret D. Stetz, Mae and Robert Carter Professor of Women's Studies at the University of Delaware; a review by Maureen E. Mulvihill appears at http://www.victoriansociety.org/Grolier_Review2_VSAb-Final1.pdf.

c. Publications & Papers

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‘A Dramatist for All Seasons: George Bernard Shaw in Vienna’ is the name of a thesis being undertaken at the University of Vienna by Barbara Pfeifer. For an abstract of this, please click $C:\Users\David\Documents\Documents\wilderness\IMAGE BANK\devices\bassclef.jpg$ .

‘Performing the Ideal: Film Adaptations of Shaw's Pygmalion' is the name of a paper being given by Susan J. Wolfe & Roberta N. Rude at the conference Cultures of Translation: Adaptation in Film and Performance, University of Glamorgan, Cardiff, 26th-28th June 2008. For an abstract of this paper, please click $C:\Users\David\Documents\Documents\wilderness\IMAGE BANK\devices\bassclef.jpg$ .

‘Face to face in word and translation: playing with words and playing with accents in two scenes by Oscar Wilde and G. B. Shaw’ is the name of a paper being given by Julie Vatain at the conference Théâtres français et irlandais: influences et interactions / French and Irish Theatres : Influences and interactions, University of Lille III, 13th-14th June 2008.

‘The Aesthetics of Shaw’s Plays’ is the name of a paper being given by Rosalie Rahal Haddad at the conference Home and Elsewhere: the Spaces of Irish Writing, University of Porto, 28th July –1st August 2008. For an abstract of this paper, please click $C:\Users\David\Documents\Documents\wilderness\IMAGE BANK\devices\bassclef.jpg$ .

‘An idiot in an absurd country: recontextualizing Bernard Shaw’s Simpleton in a contemporary tropical landscape’ is the name of a paper being given by Domingos Nunez at the conference Home and Elsewhere: the Spaces of Irish Writing, University of Porto, 28th July –1st August 2008. For an abstract of this paper, please click $C:\Users\David\Documents\Documents\wilderness\IMAGE BANK\devices\bassclef.jpg$ .

The following papers were given at the Comparative Drama Conference in Los Angeles, 27th-29th March 2008:

Charles Joseph Del Dotto (Duke University): ‘Idealism Modernism Manifesto: Shaw's Quintessence of Ibsenism and the Avant-Garde’; Christopher Innes (University of Toronto), Brigitte Bogar (University of Toronto): ‘Shaw–The Stage Icon’; Gulbun Onur (Selcuk University): ‘The Hollowness of Social Conventions in Pygmalion and Kozalar’; P.S.Sri (Royal Military College of Canada): ‘Un-Shavian Endings: Pygmalion (1913) and My Fair Lady (1956); Dilek Zerenler (Selcuk University): ‘Illusion and Realilty in Pygmalion and Kozalar’; Amanda Cuellar (University of Texas at El Paso): ‘The Faces of Oppression in Saint Joan’; Julie Sparks (San Jose State University): ‘Shaw's African Girl Extends Her Search: Ed Shockley's The Oracle’; Tony Stafford (University of Texas at El Paso): ‘Postmodern Elements in Shaw's Misalliance’.

In our last issue we were very pleased to publish a Bibliography of Shaw 2007/8 compiled by Barbara Pfeifer, Associate Editor of Shavings. This forms a supplement to the journal, and will be updated with each issue of Shavings. For this issue we have added a list of writings on Shaw form Chinese journals compiled by Professor Linda Pui-Ling Wong. We welcome contributions, which will of course be credited.

Methuen Drama is publishing the first scholarly editions of Shaw's five most popular plays – Pygmalion, Mrs Warren's Profession, Arms and the Man, Major Barbara and St Joan – this summer. The plays will be part of Methuen Drama's New Mermaids series, and will all be £8.99 paperbacks. The series editor is edited by the Canadian scholar Leonard Conolly.

SHAW The Annual of Bernard Shaw Studies

CALL FOR ARTICLES: SHAW 30 will be edited by Peter Gahan and devoted to ‘Shaw and the Irish Literary Tradition’.

‘A major dramatist in the tradition of Western literary theatre, Bernard Shaw occupies an uneasy position in the Irish literary pantheon. SHAW 30 will reassess and relocate Shaw and his political and dramatic writing within the context of Irish literature, especially that key play in the Shaw canon, John Bull's Other Island.’

Inquiries and manuscript submissions should be sent by the end of December 2008 to guest
editor Peter Gahan at pgahan@aaahawk.com or mailed to him at 7423 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90046.

Suggested topics for articles: Shaw and the 18th century Irish comic imagination: Swift, Goldsmith, and Sterne; Shaw and Anglo-Irish Restoration comedy (Congreve, Farquhar, Goldsmith, and; Sheridan).; Shaw, Boucicault, and the stage Irish-man; Shaw and the Dublin Theatre (1856-76); Language and Accent (Pygmalion): Shaw, Lecky, and the Gaelic revival; Irish writers and the New Journalism in London 1880-1900 (Lady Wilde, A.P. Graves, T.P. O'Connor, Frank Harris, Shaw, Wilde, Lady Colin Campbell, etc.); Bedford Park, the 1894 Avenue Theatre season, and the Irish Literary; Theatre: young Shaw and Yeats; ‘The Celtic School’ in 1890s London: Wilde and Shaw; Shaw's Abbey plays: John Bull's Other Island, The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet, Glimpse of Reality, and O'Flaherty V.C.; Shaw's other Irish Plays: plays written in Ireland (from Major Barbara to Saint Joan) 1905-1923; Production history and reception of Shaw plays in Ireland; Irish Disparities 1: Shaw and Synge.; Alter-egos: Shaw and Joyce (exile in John Bull and A Portrait, Ulysses, and; Exiles); Shaw and the Abbey after Synge's death 1909-17; Shaw and Lady Gregory-‘the Irish Molière’; Shaw's Irish journalism: Shaw, AE, and Horace Plunkett; Yeats and Shaw: a Working Friendship; Yeats's Robert Gregory poems & Shaw; The Great War: Heartbreak House, O'Flaherty V.C., O'Casey's Silver Tassie; and Frank McGuiness's Observe the Sons of Ulster; Saint Joan: an Irish play?; Shaw and O'Casey; Irish Disparities 2: Shaw and Beckett; Shaw, Charlotte Shaw and Edith Somerville; Shaw at The Gate Theatre, Dublin, and the Gate playwrights (production of Methuselah; Denis Johnston etc.); Shaw and Ulster: playwrights from St. John Ervine to Stewart Parker; John Bull's Other Island and Brian Friel's Translations and Dancing at Lunghasa; Shaw and Tom Murphy's Gigli Concert and Bailegangaire: Opera and Story; Shaw and Modern Irish Comic Theatre: Hugh Leonard, Bernard Farrell, Roddy Doyle; Shaw, Marina Carr, and the Greeks.; Shaw and the early 21st century Irish theatre revival (Sebastian Barry, Martin McDonagh,; Conor McPherson).

Volume 27, 2007 has been published. We must at once dash your hopes of actually reaching the articles in PDF as the ToC promises: you will be directed only to the first paragraph. The rest is kept locked away by Project Muse.

CONTENTS

Crawford, MaryAnn Krajnik. Pharand, Michel W. : Introduction: The Evolution of Shavian Consciousness Access article in PDF

Shaw, Bernard, 1856-1950. On Architecture [Access article in PDF]

Weintraub, Stanley, 1929- King Magnus and King Minus: A Play and a Playlet Access article in PDF

Gibbs, A. M. (Anthony Matthews), 1933- G.B.S. and ‘The Law of Change’ [Access article in PDF]

Meisel, Martin. Shaw, Stoppard, and ‘Audible Intelligibility’ Access article in PDF

Grene, Nicholas. Shaw and Conversion [Access article in PDF]

Pharand, Michel W. Getting Published: Grant Richards and the Shaw Book Access article in PDF

Senelick, Laurence. ‘More Looked at than Listened To’: Shaw on the Pre-revolutionary Russian Stage [Access article in PDF]

Pfeifer, Barbara. A Dramatist for All Seasons: Bernard Shaw in Vienna, 1933-1945 Access article in PDF

Ritschel, Nelson O'Ceallaigh, 1959- Shaw, Connolly, and the Irish Citizen Army [Access article in PDF]

Carpenter, Charles A. The Strategy and the Bacteriology: Scrutinizing the Microbe in Shaw's Too True to Be Good Access article in PDF

Bertolini, John A. (John Anthony), 1947 Wilde and Shakespeare in Shaw's You Never Can Tell [Access article in PDF]

King, Annie Papreck. Shakespeare's Shavian Cleopatra Access article in PDF

Ryan, Vanessa Lyndal. ‘Considering the Alternatives ...’: Shaw and the Death of the Intellectual [Access article in PDF]

Switzky, Lawrence. The Last Word on Last Words: Shaw and Catastrophic Drama Access article in PDF

Saslav, Isidor. Shaw's Letters in Other People's Books: The ‘Orphans’ [Access article in PDF]

Reviews

Dukore, Bernard Frank, 1931- G.B.S. Boxed Access article in PDF

Gahan, Peter, 1955- Shaw at 150: The BBC on DVD [Access article in PDF]

Weintraub, Stanley, 1929- More Shaw on the Great War Access article in PDF

Wise, Ivan. The Voice of Shaw [Access article in PDF]

Sparks, Julie A. Dick Dudgeon, Caesar, and Captain Brassbound in Poland Access article in PDF

Pfeiffer, John R. A Continuing Checklist of Shaviana [Access article in PDF]

Contributors Access article in PDF

Notices [Access article in PDF]

International Shaw Society News Access article in PDF

d. Obituary (1)

Dan H. Laurence died aged 87 on 5th February, 2008 in San Antonio, Texas at the Incarnate Word Retirement Community where he had lived for the last several years. Former Literary Advisor to the Shaw Estate, editor of the Shaw Bibliography, Shaw's Collected Letters, Shaw's Music, and many other scholarly works, his death was described by Richard Dietrich, coming just after that of Barry Morse, as giving the Shaw world a double hit to the solar plexus. Professor Dietrich collected and circulated a number of tributes, which we give together here.

From John Bertolini

The first gift my wife gave me when she and I were 19 was Dan’s edition of the Collected Letters, Dan’s gift to the world. My next Dan encounter was seeing him on TV when he introduced – with a charm and energy matching Shaw’s own – Mrs. Warren’s Profession on NY ETV, another gift to the public on behalf of Shaw.

When I finally met him in person at the Virginia conference, I sounded off about my worry over Shaw’s declining reputation. I received a long and wonderful typed letter from Dan reminding me that he had gotten 3 front-page NY Times Book Review reviews for Shaw and urged me to be optimistic, to be more, what else?, Shavian.

To state the obvious, Dan was a great stimulus to Shaw scholarship, only not succeeding when he came up against figures (like me) who could not match his work ethic and boundless force of will. Here’s what happened. I happened to mention to dear Fred the much-missed Crawford that it would be great to see all the 1950s TV productions of Shaw. This was an idle thought of an idle hour. One week later I start to receive the first in a steady stream of press clippings, info about ALL Shaw productions on TV, in preparation, you see, for ‘this article of yours, John, on the TV Shaw’!!! Well, I never did write that article. Alas, I failed Dan but never received a single word of reproach. Over the years I had many a free wheeling hour-long phone conversation with Dan, and somehow he made one feel life was not futile. No one could fail to be a better person, in whatever measure – for knowing him.

Goodnight, Dan, pleasant dreams, old warrior. We can never repay your many gifts to us all, but then it is the King who only gives gifts but does not receive them.

From MaryAnn Crawford

I have been sad – thinking about Dan all day, this day of his death. He was a very special person to me as he was to so many. I remember meeting him – at the same first time that Fred did – in Milwaukee, at their Shaw Festival, in 1991. Fred and I weren't yet married then, and Fred was scared stiff of talking with THE Dan; Fred was hoping to convince Dan to both support and publish in the SHAW. Of course the meeting went extremely well, and we three had a delightful time getting to know each other, talking Shaw and sharing stories. Fred and Dan became fast friends, and we continued seeing Dan, at Niagara at times and in San Antonio to work on the international Shaw materials that he had, etc. Dan was always the gracious host and delightful storyteller, picking us up, hauling us about, having dinner together, etc., etc. When Fred died, Dan was stunned and bereft. He cried, called several times, and simply assumed I would be finishing SHAW 20 with him. Talk about stunned – and scared! Somehow we managed, and Dan's patience, for someone who did suffer fools lightly, was more than commendable. It pulled me through one of the most difficult times of my life. Dan even remembered that first meeting with Fred – and my presence in it. Dan made me feel valuable, even while I absolutely quaked at picking up the scattered pieces of my life and of the volume, and at doing all that work with THE Dan Laurence. I won't forget Dan.

From Norma Jenckes

The loss of Dan Laurence to all Shavians is inestimable. His work on the letters and the bibliography are the foundation stones of all Shaw scholarship. Not a day goes by that I do not turn to him for help and enlightenment, and always I am drawn into his nuanced and informative prose to a greater understanding of whatever aspect of Shaw’s life and letters and connections that I am seeking.

Dan’s published work will remain a reliable resource, but what has been taken from us with his death now is something infinitely dearer: Dan’s personal help and suggestions and encouragement in any and every project related to Shaw.

Generosity is a rare virtue among all populations, but sometimes it seems to me that the competitive and narrow nature of some scholarship makes it even rarer in the halls of academe. But Dan was a model of generosity. He so much wanted to make everything he touched clearer and better. I believe that he shared that trait with his own role model, Shaw himself.

Over the years I have sought Dan’s help with problems large and small, and he never failed to give a full, thorough and extremely useful response.

Unsung and unrecorded, Dan loaned his ear, his research materials and also gave his money. I don’t know if he had known financial hardship as a child or young person, but he never assumed that everyone had the privileges that he had acquired. He had a great gift for empathy and he was aware that not everyone had the financial resources to fulfill his promise. I am not really familiar with any of the details of Dan’s personal life; what I do know and can attest to is the extraordinary energy and passion he expended to advance Shaw studies and to aid all of us who are also toiling in the same field.

Dan could be gruff and scary, but his warmth and affection were unmistakable, and the reality of his firm hand clasp and the strong embrace that were his unfailing greeting will remain with me always.

As I think about Dan this sad wintry morning in Cincinnati, I constantly flash back to a sunny image from a happier time. It was sometime in the 90s and we had happened to be in London at the same time in June and had met for a lunch at the British Museum. We had spent the brief hour talking about recent productions of Shaw plays that we had seen. His booming, trained voiced had turned many heads in the room, and I was proud to be his lunch companion. He left quickly to a meeting with some publisher. We walked out of the Museum together and I recall that he got into a cab and I waited and boarded one of my favorite red double-deckers. About ten minutes later I happened to look down from the top deck and saw Dan walking along in the thick crowd that had held the bus in some square in Central London. He did not see me, but I watched him and marveled at him striding along, swinging his briefcase, so alive, his face shining with the expectancy of the meeting to which he was hastening. As I watched, the light of the sun caught his white hair and powerful, forceful features gilding that moment of immense vigor, vitality and purpose – on his way, as usual, to make something great happen for Shaw studies--. Dan Laurence.

From Isidor Saslav

Such sad news. I am on my way to San Antonio next week and had been planning to visit Dan as I always did when I was there in the past. Ann too sends her regrets. At his encouragement we both performed a concert together for the residents of one of the previous homes where Dan had been himself a resident. In fact the last time I visited him at the Incarnate Word his main project was to try to look up the events director and see if he could arrange a similar concert for the IW as well. He was rather cheery on that occasion. I'm so glad that you encouraged our collecting a signature card for him at Brown two years ago.

I'll never forget when he and I first met some 35 years ago at the Shaw Festival where he was a resident lecturer at the time. He was kind enough to look through the cards of my collection and give me advice on this and that item and as to how to improve the collection. And of course, being the generous friend to all that he was, he continued our correspondence along that line through all the years since. He occasionally chastised me for being too much of an omni-collector, which I am the first to admit that I am. I visited Guelph a few seasons ago and visited his collected papers. A most stunning collection, as we all might suspect.

I'm so glad too that you got him to come to Sarasota and speak to us. That might have been his last lecture.

There will never be another one like him.

From Stanley Weintraub

Rodelle and I, possibly Dan Laurence's most long-standing Shavian friends and colleagues, certainly will miss him. We met Dan in June 1954, just after our marriage. He was then living in Long Island with his mother, a retired silent film actress from whom he acquired his love of theater, and was teaching at Hofstra, once a branch campus of NYU. Dan was still new to Shaw studies, having first worked with Leon Edel on a bibliography of Henry James and then on a bibliography of novelist Robert Nathan I was completing a doctoral thesis on Shaw, and Dan was immensely warm and helpful. We left with an armful of photocopies. About two years later I learned from the powers-that-were of the Shaw Society of America that Dan, who had begun editing the Society's Shaw Bulletin, had suddenly been hospitalized and was then nearly blind. To keep the publication going, he offered his files to a new editor they might designate, and suggested me. Thus in 1956 as a new PhD I suddenly became editor of what has since metamorphosed into Shaw. The Annual of Bernard Shaw Studies. Dan slowly recovered, but had to use his eyes judiciously, returning gradually to Shavian editing and bibliography, in which he became toweringly eminent. Anyone working on GBS found him accommodating and informative, and he remained so all his life. When he relocated to Texas he acquired a license plate reading ‘G B SHAW.’ That says it all. To all of us, that identification with the bard of Ayot St Lawrence is what Dan represented right through to the end

From Jonathan Wiesenthal

I would like to add my voice to all the fine tributes to Dan. When I first met him in the early 1970s he was, even then, much preoccupied with his health, of which he took a pretty pessimistic view. In fact, he gave me the impression that he probably did not have too much longer on this earth, and I remember thinking how sad it was that such a vigorous, exuberant man (in his fifties, as he must have been then) might soon be taken away from us. It is of course very sad indeed that he has now been taken away from us, but I am also glad that he still had all those extra years to enjoy – and that we had those years in which to enjoy, and to benefit from, his presence.

My two predominant impressions of Dan are that he was an unusually warm and generous person, and that he was a pleasure to be with. Like others who have written about him during the past week or so, I feel enormously indebted to him for all the help he gave me with Shaw studies over the years, going right back to that first meeting in Niagara-on-the-Lake where Christine and I had a very long breakfast with him at the Pillar and Post Inn. It was then that he suggested a volume of Shaw's writings about Ibsen, and as this project developed he remained unfailingly helpful and encouraging. And that breakfast also revealed what enjoyable company Dan was – what an invigorating and companionable person. Over the years, on visits to Vancouver, during other encounters in San Antonio, Niagara-on-the Lake, and Blacksburg, on the telephone, and in his closely-typed correspondence, he remained a real friend, always taking an interest in what our family was up to. When in more recent years our children settled in Australia, this brought back memories of that country for him and gave us another common bond.

I will remember him as a wonderfully youthful person, full of plans for himself and others, full of good conversation, and full of a generous willingness to share himself and his Shavian treasures with the rest of us. It was a privilege to have known him, and as Shaw wrote about William Morris in 1896, ‘You can lose a man like that by your own death, but not by his. And so, until then, let us rejoice in him.’

And a formal obituary:

Obit: Laurence's loves were drama, works of playwright Shaw

Web Posted: 02/06/2008 10:05 PM CST

Valentino Lucio

Express-News
Dan H. Laurence, a respected scholar and researcher of the life and works of George Bernard Shaw, died early Tuesday. He was 87.

Laurence spent much of his early life as a child actor in the theater. At the age of 12 he began performing on stage professionally and later worked with actors such as Buster Keaton and Canada Lee.

Laurence served in the United States Army Air Force during World War II as a writer and performer for the Armed Services Radio. During his first military assignment in Australia, he met his future wife, Fran.

After the war, he was shipped back to the United States. Before he returned to Australia to reunite with his wife, she died of complications from childbirth. Family said he grieved her death his entire life.

Encouraged by his father, Laurence earned a bachelor's degree from Hofstra University and later a master's degree from New York University. It was during his time at NYU that he took to the writings of Shaw. Later, he was appointed literary and dramatic adviser for the Shaw Estate and served as associate director for the Shaw Festival in Ontario.
Laurence taught at Dartmouth College, the University of Texas, NYU and Hofstra. While a professor of drama and English at Hofstra, he mentored students such as Francis Ford Coppola and Lainie Kazan, his niece Jo Fielder said.

Throughout his life Laurence received many awards for his scholarly pursuits, including the Hofstra University Presidential Medal in 1990. ‘I do think of myself as very successful,’ he said at his acceptance speech, ‘for I have managed to do what I wanted to do, the way I wanted to do it.’ Laurence made San Antonio his home in 1970 and co-founded the production company Off Stage, Inc.

Although Laurence never remarried or had any children of his own, he was a dedicated family man who adopted two sons and mentored people he met during his travels. ‘He helped more people than anyone I have ever known,’ said son Richard Meyer. ‘His generosity was a candle that burned brightly until the candle could burn no more.’

Obituary (2)

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In our issue of February 2007 (Shavings 27) we recorded the death of the Shavian Barry Morse. We now are pleased to publish an éloge by his friend and collaborator Anthony Wynn. Please click $C:\Users\David\Documents\Documents\wilderness\IMAGE BANK\devices\bassclef.jpg$ to read this.

e. The Shrines

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Shaw’s Corner at Ayot St Lawrence (‘See the great dramatist’s revolving Writing Hut’).

House and garden re-opened for the season on 15th March. Click the picture to find their website; the e-address is shawscorner@nationaltrust.org.uk.

The Shaw Birthplace in Synge Street, Dublin opened for the season in May 2007 and will close again in October (no date yet announced). A rather banal website can be reached by clicking

where it is ridiculously described as having been restored to its ‘Victorian glory’. Equally oddly, the entrance charges are given in Irish pounds, a currency abolished some years ago. It can be contacted at shawhouse@dublintourism.ie

f. Musical Shaw

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Shaw’s lifelong devotion to music is signalled in Niagara-on-the-Lake this year with two concerts.

Monday, 11th August 7.30 pm, at Courthouse Theatre, The Market Room: Bernard Shaw on Mozart and Bax
Artistic Director Emeritus Christopher Newton presents a musical narrative based on Bernard Shaw’s infamous music critiques accompanied by the Gould String Quartet playing Mozart’s String Quartet K.590 and the Bax String Quartet No.1. Sir Arnold Bax (1883-1953) enjoyed considerable fame between the two World Wars, only to die in relative obscurity. Re-discovering these almost-forgotten masters is something Mr. Newton particularly enjoys.

Saturday, 9th August, 11.00 am: Courthouse Theatre, The Market Room:
In 1929 an old friend of Bernard Shaw, Gwladys Evan Morris, wrote a collection of fables based on Shaw’s plays. Music Niagara presents an original adaptation of one of those fables, The Wizard and his Parrot, based on Shaw’s hugely successful Pygmalion. Christopher Newton and ensemble alumnus Barbara Worthy perform this jaunty piece accompanied by clarinet and piano. It tells the story of a wise but selfish wizard who turns his squawking parrot into a beautiful woman, with a voice demanding to be heard. In 1929, full franchise had only recently been acquired by women.

g. Posters

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We have been showing posters that the Footlights Gallery have for sale, and then placing them on a Posterwall with a link from here. We also add posters from current productions as they come to hand. This was reformed and enlarged for our last issue.

Almost the entire collection of National Theatre posters are now available to view and buy on a dedicated website www.ntposters.org.uk

The following are currently to be found on the Footlights Gallery website. We apologise for the low resolution.

FOOTLIGHTS Gallery & Gifts, 240 East Main Street, Ashland, OR 97520 USA. Phone & Fax: 541-488-5538 (Voice: 10 a.m.- 6 p.m. Pacific Time, 18:00-2:00 UTC; Fax: 24 hours); E-mail: footlite@cdsnet.net.

ALLPOSTERS (www.allposters.com) are also offering this reproduction of the caricature by Alick Ritchie (‘The Giclee printing process delivers a fine stream of ink resulting in vivid, pure color and exceptional detail that is suitable for museum or gallery display. This art print is produced on a heavy 310 gsm, acid-free and watercolor textured paper’):

4. ECHOES OF OSCAR

Or, When Shaw texted Wilde

‘It is almost incredible that Oscar’s essays and novels and dramas should not have had an effect upon the mind and conceptions of a man like Shaw’.

– H.M. Hyndman: Further Reminiscences. London: Macmillan 1912 p.221.

This section of Shavings takes up the challenge implicit in Hyndman’s statement and explores textual similarities in the work of the two writers. We will add to this from time to time, and readers are warmly invited to contribute their own aperçus. Formerly incorporated into this main section of Shavings, it now has its own page, reached by clicking here. New lines will be announced here, and then transferred.

Richard Dietrich has circulated this note:

The following comes from a long article entitled ‘Theatre memories uncovered at Grand’ at http://www.expressandstar.com/2008/04/07/theatre-memories-uncovered-at-grand/:

‘Another amusing item we have uncovered is correspondence sent between George Bernard Shaw and the Grand Theatre over the performance of his play Pygmalion. Shaw complains to the theatre that his play is advertised as ‘the brilliant comedy by Oscar Wilde’ and he asks ‘Is Oscar’s name a bigger draw than mine?’ The theatre responds by saying they would not apologise for the mistake as the audience was triple the size when attributed to Wilde, which meant Shaw is going to benefit from greater royalties. Shaw replies saying he begs the manager of the theatre to continue attributing the play to Wilde and writes ‘I am not grumbling, I am rejoicing’.’

5. BIBLIOGRAPHIES & LINKS

This section (a. GBS for Wildeans: A Bibliography of 19th century Shaw; b. Websites and blogs) has been recreated on its own page, reached by clicking here. New items will be announced here and then transferred. In February 2008, we included a 2007 Bibliography compiled with notes by Barbara Pfeifer. Do please draw our attention to new publications, especially articles in learned journals. Added June 2008: a new section on doctoral theses completed and a list of articles on Shaw published by Chinese scholars in 2007, supplied by Linda Pui-Ling Wong.

GBShaw_and_Friends is a discussion group housed at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GBShaw_and_Friends/. We applied to join (9th September 2007), and received this (presumably automated) message from the Moderator, no doubt the equivalent of a Shavian postcard:

Welcome to GBShaw_and_Friends. I hope that this group will promote the life and works of George Bernard Shaw and his Contemporaries. Contributions welcome. The more we share about this great man and his works, the better the promotion he receives. His lifetime marked great changes in society, in theatre, and in life in general.

Surprisingly, this group had only thirty-nine members, and by 30th January 2008 this had dropped to twenty-eight, including one who wishes to be known as ‘Sexy Sophia’. It has now (2nd June 2008) risen again to 30, but neither of the new members seem likely to be interested in GBS. The only message posted in the first five months of this year was one from us, announcing the publication of our previous issue...

We also applied to another ‘yahoo’ group: the ‘George bernard Shaw social Group for those who are truely interested in the life & work of Bernard shaw. Diane Uttley President of the Bernard Shaw Information & Research Service www.georgebernardshaw.com was Custodian of & lived at Shaw's home Shaw's Corner from 1989 to 1997. Diane is a Shaw Expert/Writer on GBS’. (Spelling as given).

We received the following reply:

Hello,
Your request to join the bernardshawgroup group was not approved. Your membership was automatically rejected because the moderator didn't approve it within 14 days. We do this to provide a high quality of service for our users. If you want, you may attempt to join this group again. You may find other groups to join by searching or browsing the Groups directory: http://groups.yahoo.com. If you would like to create your own group, please visit: http://groups.yahoo.com/start. Thank you for choosing Yahoo! Groups.

Not surprisingly, this group had only five members of whom only one had survived by 30th January 2008. This had not changed on the 2nd June 2008.

6. SHAW ASSOCIATIONS

Those known to us are as follows, and information about them, previously given here, is now found on a separate page.

a. The International Shaw Society

b. The Shaw Society

c. The Bernard Shaw Society & The Independent Shavian

d. The Dublin Shaw Society

e. The Shaw Societies of India and Japan

7. TAILPIECE

The English Stage Society ‘run[s] the risk of [...] sinking to the level of a monotonous and morbid school of stage sociology, alienating the goodwill of the public [...] The Society is influenced too much in this direction by its most illustrious member, G.B. Shaw [...]’

–Mario Borsa: The English Stage To-day. London: John Lane 1908 pp.109-110.

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