BERNARD SHAW

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20498, 14 May 1938, Page 15 (Supplement)

BERNARD SHAW

“ NOT A GREAT MAN ” THE VIEWS OF ELLA SHIELDS Speaking on senses of values to an Otago Daily Times interviewer at Dunedin, Ella Shields, who has just closed a very successful New Zealand tour with the Frank Neil revue company, said that a young writer whom she had met on a former visit to New Zealand had had a worshipful regard for the plays of George Bernard Shaw. “Every week during my stay she used to come to me with a fresh Shavian discovery, and I told her what I have always thought—that Shaw is not great, because his plays, with the exception, perhaps, of ‘Pygmalion,’ are short-lived and quickly forgotten. ‘Pygmalion’ interested the public because it was the first 'play in the last half-century to contain a swear-word. “With the exception of ‘Fanny’s First Play,’ a delightful work and one which is ideally suited to repertory, I have no liking for Shaw—though Shaw himself is a dear old man,” she added with a smile. “I met my New Zealand friend in London some veal’s later, and she confessed that she had found many greater idols to worship.”