Bernard Shaw - Letters to an Actress Quiz

Answer: Caesar and Cleopatra

Shaw had followed Stella Campbell's career with great interest as a professional critic. Her swift rise to stardom in Pinero's 'The Second Mrs Tanqueray', encouraged Shaw to think of her as a potential leading lady in one of his future plays. They were certainly familiar with one another, moving in the same creative and intellectual milieu. In his first letter he speaks of his play 'Caesar and Cleopatra', entreating her to look at the first act, but she showed little interest.

Sometime later, in 1914, Shaw presented her with a volume of three plays, (including C&C). His inscription read: 'To silly Stella, who threw Caesar and Cleopatra into the waste paper basket, from G. Bernard Shaw.' (Shaw hated the first name George, and never used it himself)

Answer: Mrs. Warren's Profession

Mrs Warren had been a prostitute and had become a very wealthy brothel keeper. Much of the play consists of very frank discussions between her and her daughter about prostitution, a subject the Lord Chancellor found quite unsuitable for polite society. Shaw said that he wrote the play, "to draw attention to the truth that prostitution is caused, not by female depravity and male licentiousness, but simply by underpaying, undervaluing and overworking women so shamefully that the poorest of them are forced to resort to prostitution to keep body and soul together".

The play was first staged privately in London in 1902 and publicly in New York in 1905, when it was raided by the police and the theatre manager arrested. It did not finally appear in public performance in a London theatre until 1925. 2010 saw revivals of the play in both London and Washington, DC.

Answer: Pygmalion

Shaw was busy with many other projects, thus "Pygmalion" and the role of Eliza took time to fully emerge. However, by 1912 it was almost ready to present. Shaw, in a note to Ellen Terry, describes his negotiations with Mrs Campbell for the part of Eliza. ... " Why then I went calmly to her house to discuss business with her, as hard as nails, and, as I am a living man, fell head over ears in love with her in thirty seconds". It was the role of Eliza that had somehow held Mrs Campbell in Shaw's mind; despite inexplicable prolonged gaps in their correspondence, he would have no-one else in the role.

An extended illness and near nervous breakdown had, at times, threatened her appearing in the play at all. Other renowned actresses read the script, but were afraid that the necessary cockney swearing in the part of Eliza would tarnish their reputations. Mrs Campbell finally opened in "Pygmalion" in London in April, 1914, to great acclaim, despite the fact that she was 49, and much too old for the part.

Answer: Androcles and the Lion.

The play is a retelling of the story of Androcles, a Cristian slave being led to the Colosseum for torture, whose life is saved by the mercy of a lion. Through the various characters in the play, Shaw discusses both modern and early Christianity, and the impact that Jesus' teachings had on the values and traditions of Rome. The play is often printed with a long preface by Shaw examining the Gospels. The preface is longer than the play itself.

During the reading to Mrs Campbell there must have been some sort of disagreement. Her letter comments "Oh dear me - its' too late to do anything but accept you - but when you were quite a little boy somebody ought to have said "hush" just once!" Shaw replies "... What was done to me in my childhood was nothing of an intentional kind. I wasn't spoiled and I wasn't helped. No direct ill treatment was added by anybody to the horrors of the world. Nobody forbade me to discover what I could of its wonders. I was taken - and took myself - for what I was: a disagreeable little beast."

Answer: They were dedicated to transforming Britain into a socialist state by systematic progressive legislation, and mass education.

The Fabian Society was founded by the economists Sidney and Beatrice Webb, together with Shaw and other middle-class British Socialist intellectuals. They believed in gradual change rather than revolution. They wanted social justice and were instrumental in the foundation of the Labour Party in Britain. They were also the founders of the London School of Economics, funded heavily by Shaw's wife Charlotte. The name is in honor of the Roman General Quintus Fabius Maximus. The Fabian strategy was to make well-planned strategic blows to weaken the enemy, rather than engaging in a full-scale battle.

In "Common Sense about the War", Shaw advocated people to lend their minds (perhaps prematurely) to "the problem of how to redraw the map of Europe and reform its political constituencies that this abominable and atrocious nuisance, a European war, shall not easily occur again." He went on to say "It is not enough for the Allies to win: we and not Russia must be the decisive factor in the victory, or Germany will not be fairly beaten ....We must have the best army in Europe". Time has proven that what he wrote was prescient and wise, but at the moment he became totally out of favor, and did not present a play during the war years.

Answer: Heartbreak House

"Heartbreak House" is set on the eve of World War 1. The house is a metaphor for a ship that requires capable navigation, not only from the captain and crew, but from the passengers also. There is discussion between characters about leaving the future to providence, rather than actually learning correct navigation. It is a complex play, that is rarely performed, but must be seen to appreciate the full genius. It opened in New York in 1920, and had its London premiere in the following year.

Mrs Campbell had hoped that Shaw would let her appear in the London production.

"This letter is in the form of a contract and I am afraid of it - Hoyti Wiborg writes from USA most enthusiastically about Heartbreak House - it would be a little unkind of you to leave me out of it, if it is done here."

Shaw replied "Belovedest: I can't put you into the cast of HH. ...and the rest of the cast, the manager and the backers would go on strike at once. What I dare not face, nobody with any sense is likely to take on. You must take a theatre, write your own plays, and train a company of orphans apprentices to act with you." She was now 56 and no longer had the box-office draw to make a play successful.

Answer: It consists of a preface and a series of five separate plays.

"Back to Methuselah (A Metabiological Pentateuch)", with the preface ("An Infidel Half Century"). The series of five plays stretch in time from 4004 BC to 31,920 AD. It is really science fiction, and certainly Shaw's only effort in that genre. The biographer Michael Holroyd, describes the plays as "a masterpiece of wishful thinking".

Critics and audiences of the time found the piece interesting, but in many cases failed to follow Shaw's metaphors and morals. His view of Utopia is seen as too cold and uninviting. and his conceptions were on the whole quite foreign to American audiences. It is a complex and wordy piece, that has seen subsequent productions cutting the length dramatically, to still have relevance with contemporary audiences.

Answer: Sybil Thorndike

Sybil Thorndike first appeared in 'The Merry Wives of Windsor', in 1904 at age 21. In a four year US tour in Shakespearean repertory, she gained invaluable experience, playing 112 different roles.

Shaw originally noticed her talents during her understudy of "Candida" in 1908. This production was directed by Shaw himself. She played in various leading roles n the US and England, and was a vital member of the Old Vic Company from 1914-18. There was a mutual admiration between Shaw and Thorndike, whose rendition of Joan is still considered the definitive portrayal.

Shaw mentions in a letter to Mrs Campbell "Sybil Thorndike for a whole month never let me doubt for a second that she regarded me as far superior to the Holy Trinity as a producer".

Shaw's relationship with Mrs Campbell had irrevocably changed "When I told you of my sudden loss of all specific interest in women, you did not notice the adjective. I see all women as I see other people. I always did, but with one eye only: the other eye was enchanted. Now the enchantment is gone, and I can no longer tell myself love stories".

Answer: He received the Nobel Prize for literature.

Shaw was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. In his self-effacing way he wanted to decline the award, having no desire for public honors. He was persuaded to accept the prize by his wife Charlotte, which she considered a tribute to his Irish heritage. He did, however, refuse the prize money, and had it utilized in the translation of his works from English into Swedish.

"I can forgive Alfred Nobel for having invented dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize."

He did also receive an Oscar in 1938 for his work on the script for the film version of "Pygmalion".

Answer: A view of future politics, exposing the unreality of both democracy and royalty as idealists see them.

In Shaw's preface he describes the play as..."a comedy in which a King defeats an attempt by his popularly elected Prime Minister to deprive him of the right to influence public opinion through the press and the platform: in short to reduce him to a cipher. The King's reply is that rather than be a cipher, he will abandon the throne and take his obviously very rosy chance of becoming a popularly elected Prime Minister himself." Shaw proved himself to be highly prophetic in this play in the roles that Britain, the US and big business would take on the future world stage.

His relationship with Mrs Campbell went into a decline, and their correspondence became erratic. She was constantly short of money and threatening to sell his letters, or pestering for his support in finding an acting role. In his final letter to her he says: "The giant is decrepit and his wife crippled with lumbago. Constance Collier tried for the part Pascal wanted you for...He gave you up because you could not be separated for six months from your dog. For Heavens sake, when that wretched animal perishes, buy a giant Panda or a giraffe or a water buffalo or a sea lion, any of which you can take with you anywhere..."

She died the following year (1940) aged 75. Shaw died in 1950 aged 94.