Showing results by author "Bernard Shaw" in All Categories

The Emporor of Rome and the Queen of the Nile as only Shaw could have imagined them! He is a self-doubting cynic who is experiencing a mid-life crisis and she is an imperious and impertinent child on the threshold of womanhood. This recording also includes Shaw's alternate Prologue and his post-text notes.

Barbara is a major in the Salvation Army - but she's also the daughter of Andrew Undershaft, a man who's made millions from the sale of weapons of war. The real battle, however, rages between between the devilish father and his idealistic daughter as they answer the question: does salvation come through faith or finance? This sparkling comedy traverses family relations, religion, ethics and politics - as only Shaw, the master dramatist, can!

A Cockney flower girl is transformed into a charming woman of the world by a professor of phonetics. This is the play that was later to be adapted as the musical, My Fair Lady.

In this allegorical play, the eccentric Captain Shorover's home hosts a cast, each of whom represents some evil in the modern world.

Hace décadas que se publican libros que le dicen al hombre corriente cómo hacerse rico pero nadie se ha molestado en escribir uno para la minoría más ignorada por esta industria: los millonarios. En este ensayo humorístico escrito exclusivamente para superricos, se abordan temas de crucial interés tales como el éxito de la descendencia, las mejores formas de desperdiciar el dinero arduamente obtenido, las opciones de caridad más eficientes y cómo conciliar el estilo de vida millonario con el socialismo.

Don Juan In Hell is Act 3, Scene 2 from Bernard Shaw's 'Man and Superman' which was written in 1903. This classic staged performance features Cedric Hardwicke, Charles Boyer, Charles Laughton and Agnes Moorehead.

To celebrate Radio 3's 50th anniversary, Man and Superman was directed by Sir Peter Hall, and preserved for all time in this lush audio dramatization. "A comedy and a philosophy", Man and Superman is based on the Don Juan theme, and using all the elements from Mozart's Don Giovanni, Shaw reordered them so that Don Juan becomes the quarry instead of the huntsman. Boasting an outstanding cast including Ralph Fiennes, Juliet Stevenson, Dame Judi Dench, John Wood, Nicholas Le Prevost, and Paul Merton.

Wild, wacky, and wonderful are the characters involved in this debate-in-one-sitting. The Tarlton conservatory is the scene of many a Shavian skirmish: parents vying with children, sibling rivalry, and the battle of the sexes. An airplane crashing into the greenhouse, a gunner, and a Polish daredevil complicate matters even further!

Taking place on a single day in May 1909, a self-made millionaire and his family invite their future nobleman-in-law for a visit to their estate in Surrey, England. In this delightfully clever play, issues of gender, class, politics, and family are all targets for Shaw's keen wit.

Bernard Shaw based his "religious pantomime" Androcles and the Lion on the ancient fable of the runaway slave who pulls a painful thorn from a lion's paw, thereby making a lifelong friend. This tale of a puny Greek tailor triumphing over the Roman emperor is, as always with Shaw, a commentary on the politics of his time, with the emperor standing in for the British government and, indeed, all repressive regimes.

Richard Dudgeon, who has become an outcast from his puritanical family due to his religious apostasy, returns home on the death of his father. Much to everyone’s surprise, it is revealed that the father changed his will shortly before his death and has left the bulk of the estate to Richard. Now that he is lord of the manor, Richard asserts himself and declares his opposition to the colonial British authorities. Later, he is arrested by the British and sentenced to death but is rescued in the nick of time by a local militia commanded by Anthony Anderson, who, ironically, is a pastor.

The blowhards, the know-it-alls, the scrupulous and the impecunious are all targets for Shaw's incisive wit in his classic satire of the medical profession. A well-respected physician is forced to choose whom he shall save: a bumbling friend or the ne'er-do-well husband of the woman he loves.

"Don Juan in Hell" (1903) is Act 3, Scene 2 in "Man and Superman", a four-act drama written by George Bernard Shaw. The long third act of the play, which shows Don Juan himself having a conversation with several characters in Hell, is often cut. It consists of a philosophical debate between Don Juan and the Devil, with Doña Ana (Ann) and the Statue of Don Gonzalo, Ana's father looking on. This third act is often performed separately as a play in its own right.

George Bernard Shaw's warm and witty play continues to challenge conventional wisdom about male/female relationships. Candida concerns a beautiful married woman's choice between the two men who love her.

Never has the Revolutionary War been so entertaining. Shaw stands "do or die" melodrama on its head, with a cast of unforgettable characters, from the deliciously urbane "Gentlemanly Johnny" Burgoyne, to the misguided romanticism of beautiful young Judith Anderson, to the Devil's Disciple himself, a dashing young American hero who disdains heroism, even as he makes the ultimate sacrifice for honor and country.

It's amazing how relevant these century-old words of Bernard Shaw's are right now. Just like then nobody understands the concept of socialism, and the fact that any successful democracy is a socialist democracy to some extent.

You Never Can Tell was originally born out of a bet that Shaw couldn't write a "seaside comedy" (a popular theatrical genre at that time). The result is perhaps the most surprising of Shaw's plays, complete with marital mayhem, tangled romance, and even doubtful dentistry. Despite the play's lighthearted tone, it's really another of Shaw's brilliantly observed social treatises, this time in the guise of a light comedy.

Barbara, the granddaughter of an earl, is busy saving souls in the Salvation Army while her father, maintaining that poverty is the worst of crimes, runs a munitions factory.

When Vivie learns that her mother's harlotry is the origin of her financial support, nothing in her world can ever be the same. There are serious consequences for her suitor, her mother, and herself.

The remarkable history of Joan of Arc liberating Orleans and France of the English but being burned at the stake and not canonized until five centuries later in 1920. The history and play are stunning achievements by George Bernard Shaw.