Bernard Shaw was born in Dublin in 1856. Essentially shy, yet he created the persona of G.B.S., the showman, satirist, controversialist, critic, pundit, wit, intellectual buffoon and dramatist. Commentators brought a new adjective into English: Shavian, a term used to embody all his brilliant qualities.
After his arrival in London in 1876 he became an active Socialist and a brilliant platform speaker. He wrote on many social aspects of the day: on Commonsense about the War (1914), How to Settle the Irish Question (1917) and The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Socialism and Capitalism (1928). He undertook his own education at the British Museum and consequently became keenly interested in cultural subjects. Thus his prolific output included music, art and theatre reviews, which were collected into several volumes: Music in London 1890–1894 (3 vols., 1931); Pen Portraits and Reviews (1931); and Our Theatres in the Nineties (3 vols., 1931). He wrote five novels and some shorter fiction including The Black Girl in Search of God and some Lesser Tales and Cashel Byron’s Profession, both published in Penguins.
He conducted a strong attack on the London theatre and was closely associated with the intellectual revival of British theatre. His many plays fall into several categories: ‘Plays Pleasant’; ‘Plays Unpleasant’; comedies; chronicle-plays; ‘metabiological Pentateuch’ (Back to Methuselah, a series of plays) and ‘political extravaganzas’. G.B.S. died in 1950.
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This collection published in Penguin Books 1986
The Apple Cart published separately in Penguin Books 1956
The Apple Cart: Copyright 1930, 1931, George Bernard Shaw. Renewal copyright © 1957. 1958, The Public Trustee as Executor of the Estate of George Bernard Shaw
On the Rocks: Copyright 1934, George Bernard Shaw. Renewal copyright © 1961, The Public Trustee as Executor of the Estate of George Bernard Shaw
Geneva: Copyright 1938, 1946, 1947, George Bernard Shaw. Renewal copyright © 1965, 1973, 1974, The Public Trustee as Executor of the Estate of George Bernard Shaw
All business connected with Bernard Shaw’s plays is in the hands of The Society of Authors, 84 Drayton Gardens, London SW10 9SB (Telephone: 01-373 6642), to which all inquiries and applications for licences to perform should be addressed and performing fees paid. Dates and places of contemplated performances must be precisely specified in all applications.
Applications for permission to give stock and amateur performances of Bernard Shaw’s plays in the United States of America and Canada should be made to Samuel French Inc., 45 West 25th Street, New York, New York 10010
ISBN-13: 978-0-141-96371-6
The Apple Cart: A Political Extravaganza
Preface
On the Rocks: A Political Comedy
Preface
Geneva: Another Political Extravaganza
Preface
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Composition begun 5 November 1928; completed 29 December 1928. First published in German translation, as Der Kaiser von Amerika, 1929. Published in English, 1930. First presented in Polish at the Teatr Polski, Warsaw, on 14 June 1929. First presented in English at the Festival Theatre, Malvern, on 19 August 1929.
Boanerges (President of the Board of Trade) Matthew Boulton
Magnus (King of England) Cedric Hardwicke
Alice (The Princess Royal) Eve Turner
Proteus (Prime Minister) Charles Carson
Balbus (Home Secretary) Frank Moore
Nicobar (Foreign Secretary) Clifford Marquand
Crassus (Colonial Secretary) Julian d’Albie
Pliny (Chancellor of the Exchequer) Aubrey Mallalieu
Lysistrata (Powermistress-General) Eileen Beldon
Amanda (Postmistress-General) Dorothy Holmes-Gore
Orinthia Edith Evans
Queen Jemima Barbara Everest
Mr Vanhattan (American Ambassador) James Carew
Period—The Future
ACT 1 An Office in the Royal Palace. A Summer Morning. 11 a.m.
An Interlude: Orinthia’s Boudoir. The Same Day. 3.15 p.m.
ACT II A Terrace overlooking the Palace Gardens. Later in the Afternoon