Six Talks on "The Life and Work of Bernard Shaw"

Radio Record, Volume V, Issue 13, 9 October 1931, Page 10

Six Talks on "The Life and Work of Bernard Shaw"

By the

Rev.

William A.

Constable

M.A.

Sucve Ponee var eA Ua) Us Cd TUT AENIM CIMT a MUM aL CT LIT MOU ONo Al 7 To be broadcast from 1YA, Tuesday, October 20, at 7.30 p.m. Synopsis of No. 2-Laier Life. HAW’S interest in social problems and first attempts at public speaking began in 1879, when he joined the Zeletical Society. After hearing a speech by Henry George and reading his "Progress and Poverty," he became an enthusiastic "Single Taxer." But at a Socialist meeting at which he spoke he was told to read Marx’s "Capital," and did so, in French, in the British Museum Library. Then he joined the "Fabian Society," in 1884, and came into intimate contact with a remarkable group, including Graham Wallas, Sydney Webb, Sydney Olivier, Mrs. Besant, William Morris and Cunningham Graham--all of whom later became famous. He served on the St. Pancras Vestry before the London County Council was formed, and out of his practical experience wrote "The Common Sense of Municipal Trading." He is still a member of the Fabian Society and a keen Socialist, as his recent "Intelligent Women’s Guide to Socialism and Capitalism" bears witness. His journalistic career began in 1885, when he joined the staff of the "World" as art critic. His unconventional way of putting what he believed began to win him the license of a jester, but as he says: "All the time the real joke is that I am in earnest." In 1888 he joined the "Star" as music critic, and the initials "G.B.S." began to be famous. His favourite musicians were Mozart, Beethoven and Wagner, and he proved to be a champion of Wagner when most of the critics were openly hostile. In 1894 he became the dramatic critic of the "Saturday Review" and the champion of the much-reviled Ibsen. He has always been a lover of Shakespeare; but he mercilessly criticised and ridiculed those who praised Shakespeare for wrong reasons and produced his plays in wrong ways and mangled versions. Shaw’s career as a dramatist began in 1892 with "Widowers’ Houses." "Mrs. Warren’s Profession" was banned by the censor. "Arms and the Man" was his first play to achieve even a small success. Later came "Candida," "The Devil’s Disciple," and "Caesar and Cleopatra." the two latter produced by that great actor Forbes Robertson. In 1898 he married Miss Charlotte Payne-Townshend. From 1904 to 1908, the Vedienne-Basher management of the Court Theatre introduced many new and now famous dramatists to the theatre. Its success was, however, mainly due to the growing popularity of Shaw’s plays, especjally "Man and Superman" and "John Bull’s Other Island." The most important of his later plays include "The Doctor’s Dilemma," "Fanny's First Play," "Androcles and the Lion," "Pygmalion," "Heartbreak House," "Back to Methuselah," "Saint Joan,’ "The Apple Cart." and he is, at present at the age of over 75, engaged on a new play. _ He is by far the most widely-known English writer in the world to-day. plays have been performed in most of the capitals and larige towns of Europe and America, and recently he was awarded the international Nobel Prize for Literature. Questions for discussion by groups:(1) Is Shaw’s remark, "I am an expert picker of other people’s brains, and I have been most fortunate in my friends," applicable to Shakespeare or any other dramatists or writers? (2) Does Shaw’s method of saying which he sincerely believes in a humorous, or irritating or even flippant way, succeed in making people think for themselves?