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At
the end of the 1800’s, the English theatre was in dire creative conditions,
in particular due to the lack of new, up-and-coming playwrights.
However,
with the emergence of George Bernard Shaw, the society suddenly experienced
a renewed interest in theatrical material, especially in plays.
Born
in Ireland in 1856, in Dublin, G.B. Shaw grew up in a middle class Protestant
family and had a difficult childhood: he was left to rely on his own
resources and cultivated an instinctively surly disposition. His family
disintegrated after his father, always out of work, ended up seeking
solace in alcoholism.
A
significant moment in Shaw’s life occurred when he became a member of
the Fabian Society, a group supporting socialist political and economic
ideals. During that same period, he became involved in journalism, thanks
in part to William Archer, and became a literary critic. Shaw also began
to prepare texts for the theatre in 1892, a commitment he continued
until his death in 1950.
Shaw
began his career as a dramatist with the “Widower’s Houses” (1892),
a play in which he tackled subjects such as exploitation and real estate
speculation. This work was followed by the play “Mrs. Warren’s Profession”
written in 1894 and censored for many years because of its “taboo” theme,
but it was finally brought to the stage in 1902. In this play, Shaw
faced the problem of prostitution, making some salient points: if this
is a business like any other, then Mrs. Warren shouldn’t be ostracised,
or if this is an evil for society, then it must be wiped out by eliminating
the causes that generate it, and not only by punishing the victims.
In the play, Mrs. Warren attempts to demonstrate to her daughter Vivie
that it is not she and her profession responsible for an age-old affliction,
but rather, the society and the power that, buckled under by compromises,
have surrendered without maintaining a moral integrity. In the end,
Vivie bids coherently goodbye to her mother and leaves her, with every
intention of living her life with an honest clerical job.
In
the work “Arms and the Man”, (1894), Shaw pens a satire on the
romantic idea of war, asserting that heroism is nothing other than an
invented illusion: every soldier is afraid to die, precisely because
he is human.
In
“The Man of destiny” (1896), the author ridicules the myth of
Napoleon and uses this character, making him utter various stinging
phrases addressed towards the English and their habits.
It
must be emphasised how the characters in the plays by Shaw are instruments
in the hand of the playwright, to support the battle of the ideas that
the author intended to wage. The texts written by Shaw during this early
period would be later gathered in 1898 in the “Plays Unpleasant”
along with the “Plays Pleasant” (“Arms and the Man”, “Candida”,
“The Man of destiny”, “You Never Can Tell”).
Shaw’s
debuts were difficult and his works were often staged in small and peripheral
theatres, however they still constitute the beginning of a fortunate
career, rich in successes and extraordinary recognition, that would
lead him to obtain the Nobel prize for literature in 1925.
(Continued) (traduzione Interpres sas-Giussano)
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