No love for Shaw

no-love-shaw(Canscene) My school drama club once put on a creditable version of Shaw’s Arms and the Man.  And in 1944, I revelled in the 1944 production at London’s New Theatre where Laurence Olivier (Sergius) and Ralph Richardson (Bluntschli) had revived and relocated the bombed-out Old Vic.

Similarly, I had listened to endless playing of the My Fair Lady platter and likewise had enjoyed the movie for which the world had Shaw’s Pygmalion to thank.

But.. I must confess that I find the remainder of Shaw a colossal bore. My collected works go largely unopened at the thought of struggling through those sententious essays and prologues plus the minutiae of the stage directions.

In view of the enormous success of the Shaw Festival I bow my head  to the venality engendered by the man who boorishly slandered Shakespeare at every occasion.

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One Response to “No love for Shaw”

  1. Bill Andersen Says:

    Ben, I read this Shaw quote the other day:
    “If all the economists were laid end to end, they’d never reach a conclusion.”

    Witty but empty, if you agree that “a conclusion is the point at which you decide to stop thinking.”

    I forget whose quote that last one is, but it’s better than Shaw’s.