SHAW: The Annual of Bernard Shaw Studies, Vol. 14

Shaw and the Last Hundred Years Edited by Bernard F. Dukore

Publish Date: 5/19/1995
Dimensions: 6 x 9
Page Count: 346 pages
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-271-01324-4

Hardcover Edition: $57.95Add to Cart

In 1892 the first production of Bernard Shaw's first play, Widowers' Houses, heralded the birth of modern drama in the English language. One hundred years later a group of Shavians gathered to examine the significance and influence of Shaw's drama in the English-speaking world. The conference, sponsored by Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, brought together theater scholars, critics, and artists from Canada, England, Ireland, and the United States. The conference also featured productions of The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet, The Man of Destiny, and Farfetched Tales, each followed by a symposium.

The centennial conference not only marked the importance of the event but also stimulated new ways of regarding that historic moment, reexaminations of the significance of Shaw's plays, and explorations of their consequences. Some speakers reevaluated the genesis of the first production of Widowers' Houses and its social, cultural, and theatrical context. Some brought to bear on the subject of Shavian drama recent critical perspectives, such as feminism, deconstructionism, and the type of close textual and intertextual scrutiny seldom accorded Shaw. Others explored his impact in England, America, Ireland, and the Antipodes. Still others examined the relationship of comedy and ideas, subtext, and how this Victorian dramatist remains pertinent today. The conference concluded with a symposium that aimed to assess what might lie ahead for Shaw on page and stage in the next hundred years. This volume records the proceedings of the conference as well as reviews and the continuing checklist of Shaviana.

Contributors are Peter Barnes, Charles A. Berst, Montgomery Davis, Bernard F. Dukore, Martin Esslin, Joanne E. Gates, Nicholas Grene, Christopher Innes, Katherine E. Kelly, Frederick P. W. McDowell, Rhoda Nathan, Christopher Newton, Michael O'Hara, Jean Reynolds, Irving Wardle, Stanley Weintraub, and J. L. Wisenthal.

Bernard F. Dukore is University Distinguished Professor of Theater Arts and Humanities at Virginia Tech. He is the author of several books and editor, most recently, of The Drama Observed by Bernard Shaw (Penn State, 1993).

CONTENTS

NOTICES vii
PREFACE: THE 1992 CONFERENCE: SHAW AND THE LAST HUNDRED YEARS
Bernard F. Dukore 3

PART I: IN THE BEGINNING

1. SHAW DECIDES TO BECOME A PLAYWRIGHT:    JULY-DECEMBER 1892
Stanley Weintraub 9

2. THE 9TH OF DECEMBER 1892: GOING TO THE     THEATER IN THE NINETIES—A FANTASIA IN THE
MANNER OF SACHEVERELL SITWELL 25
Christopher Newton

3. THE THEATRICAL POLITICS OF ELIZABETH ROBINS
AND BERNARD SHAW 43
Joanne E. Gates

PART II: THE GOSPEL OF BROTHER BERNARD

4. FROM SYMPOSIUM: THE SHEWING-UP OF BLANCO
POSNET AND THE MAN OF DESTINY 57

5. SHAW ON WOMAN SUFFRAGE: A MINOR PLAYER
ON THE PETTICOAT PLATFORM 67
Katherine E. Kelly

6. FROM SYMPOSIUM: FARFETCHED FABLES    83
Jay Tunney

PART III: THE THING THAT HAPPENS

7. THE SHAW FACTOR: RETROSPECTIVE MODERNISM AND BRITISH THEATER 95
Christopher Innes

8. AS KINGFISHERS CATCH FIRE: THE SAINTS AND
POETICS OF SHAW AND T. S. ELIOT 105
Charles A. Berst

9. SHAW AND AMERICAN DRAMA        127
Bernard F. Dukore

10. ARMS AND THE MAN AND THE FEDERAL THEATER:
LOVE AND WAR IN TROUBLED TIMES 145
Michael O'Hara

11. SHAW IN THE IRISH THEATER: AN UNACKNOWLEDGED PRESENCE 153
Nicholas Grene

12. A FABIAN DOWN UNDER: SHAW'S PLAYS IN THE ANTIPODES 167
Rhoda Nathan

13. TRIBUTE TO DAN H. LAURENCE 177
PART IV: COMEDIES OF A GENTLEMAN WHO BECAME ELDERLY

14. HAW AT PLAY 191
Peter Barnes

15. TEXT AND SUBTEXT IN SHAVIAN DRAMA 199
Martin Esslin

16. DECONSTRUCTING HENRY HIGGINS, OR ELIZA
AS DERRIDEAN “TEXT” 209
Jean Reynolds

17. SHAW, OUR CONTEMPORARY?—THE CROOKED ROAD TO GENIUS 219
J.L. Wisenthal

18. WIDOWERS' HOUSES: A PLAY FOR THE 1890s AND THE 1990s 231
Frederick P. W. McDowell

19. SHAW: OFF THE ROCKS 241
Irving Wardle

20. SHAW'S THEATER IN OUR NINETIES: BACK TO THE FUTURE? 255
Montgomery Davis

PART V: AS FAR AS THOUGHT DARE REACH

21. FROM SYMPOSIUM: WHAT MAY LIE AHEAD FOR SHAW
AFTER THE FIRST HUNDRED YEARS? 265

REVIEWS AND CHECKLIST

REVIEWS

THE PREFATORY SHAW (The Complete Prefaces, Vol. 1: 1889-1913, ed. Dan H. Laurence and Daniel J. Leary)     279
Richard Nickson

THE STAGE'S GENIAL SCOURGE (Bernard Shaw,
The Drama Observed, ed. Bernard R. Dukore) 283
Alfred Turco, Jr.

HOLROYD HUMORIZED (Bernard Shaw: The Last Laugh,     by Michael Holroyd) 291
John A. Bertolini

TWO STRIKES AND A HOMER (Transformations and Texts, by Steven Joyce)
Dan H. Laurence

AN INTERNATIONAL VIEW OF SHAW (Bernard Shaw: On Stage, ed. L.W. Conolly and Ellen M. Pearson) 296
R.F. Dietrich

PEN PORTRAIT OF A RUTHLESS REVEALER (Studies in Bernard Shaw, by Jean-Claude Amalric) 301
Michel W. Pharand

A CONTINUING CHECKLIST OF SHAVIANA 305
John R. Pfeiffer

CONTRIBUTORS 327

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