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    The George Bernard Shaw Collection
    The George Bernard Shaw Collection
    The George Bernard Shaw Collection
    Audiobook13 hours

    The George Bernard Shaw Collection

    Written by George Bernard Shaw

    Narrated by Kate Burton, Shirley Knight and Full Cast

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Eight of George Bernard Shaw's most memorable plays in one splendid collection:

    Mrs. Warren’s Profession: Shaw pits a clever heroine against a memorable gallery of rogues in this superbly intelligent and still shocking comedy, which was banned for eight years from the English stage after its London debut. Performed by: Paul Gutrecht, Kaitlin Hopkins,Shirley Knight, Basil Langton, Dakin Matthews and Robin Sachs.

    Arms and the Man: Stars Anne Heche as the beautiful, headstrong Raina who awaits her fiancé’s return from battle – but instead meets a soldier who seeks asylum in her bedroom. Performed by: Al Espinosa, Jeremy Sisto, Teri Garr, Anne Heche, Micahel Winters, Jason Kravits and Sarah Rafferty.

    Candida: Shaw’s warm and witty play challenged conventional wisdom about relationships between the sexes, as a beautiful wife must choose between the two men who love her. Performed by: Tom Amandes, Christopher Cartmill, Rebecca MacLean,
    David New, Nicholas Rudall and JoBeth Williams.

    The Devil’s Disciple: A young hero who disdains heroism makes the ultimate sacrifice for honor and country during the American Revolution, starring Richard Dreyfuss.
    Performed by: Jennifer Albright, Pat Carroll, Stanton Davis, Bruce Davison, Richard Dix, Richard Dreyfuss, David Bryon Jackson, Lisa Pelikan, Derek Smith and Jon Tindle.

    Major Barbara: Featuring Kate Burton, this sparkling comedy traverses family relations, religion, ethics and politics - as only Shaw, the master dramatist, can! Performed by: J.B. Blanc, Kate Burton, Matthew Gaydos, Brian George, Hamish Linklater, Henri Lubatti,
    Kirsten Potter, Roger Rees, Russell Soder, Amelia White, Missy Yager and Sarah Zimmerman.

    The Doctor’s Dilemma: 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. Performed by: Jane Carr, Gregory Cooke, Kenneth Danziger, Roy Dotrice, Martin Jarvis, Jennifer Dundas Lowe, Simon Templeman, Douglas Weston and Paxton Whitehead.

    Misalliance: A self-made millionaire and his family invite their future in-law for a visit to their estate. In this delightfully clever play, issues of gender, class, politics, and family are all targets for Shaw’s keen wit. Performed by: Tom Beyer, Joy Gregory, Roger Rees, Serena Scott Thomas, W. Morgan Sheppard, Eric Stoltz, Victoria Tennant, Tegan West and Douglas Weston.

    Pygmalion: Shaw’s beloved play about a irascible speech professor who decides to mold a Cockney flower girl into the darling of high society. Performed by: Roslyn Alexander, Shannon Cochran, Denise du Maurier, Rebecca MacLean, David New, Kenneth J. Northcott, Nicholas Pennell, Nicholas Rudall, Ben Whitehouse and Laura Whyte.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherL.A. Theatre Works
    Release dateNov 25, 2010
    ISBN9781580817929
    Author

    George Bernard Shaw

    George Bernard Shaw was born in Dublin in 1856 and moved to London in 1876. He initially wrote novels then went on to achieve fame through his career as a journalist, critic and public speaker. A committed and active socialist, he was one of the leaders of the Fabian Society. He was a prolific and much lauded playwright and was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. He died in 1950.

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    Reviews for The George Bernard Shaw Collection

    3.5/5

    176 ratings7 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Great stories, but the table of contents is worthless. 8 stories and 77 chapters with absolutely no indication of which chapter each story begins.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Wow is Shaw a master of putting a lot of provocative ideas in a short play. A young lady rejects society to try to save the bellies, livers, and souls of the poor - is she truly a good person? An arms manufacturer claims power over government to get them to make war so he can sell weapons to all who can pay - is he truly a bad person? Is the pragmatic matron or the idealistic professor more likely to hold sway over their own destinies? Or over the destinies of the others in the family?

      A line from the beginning that made me realize this polemic was going to be funny is spoken by the society matron, Barbara's mother, a strong & opinionated woman, Let snobbish people say what they please: Barbara shall marry, not the man they like, but the man *I* like."

      And an exchange from the end that reminds me of Oscar Wilde, first Lady B. again, "[You] ought to know better than to go about saying that wrong things are true. What does it matter whether they are true if they are wrong?" The arms merchant retorts, "What does it matter whether they are wrong if they are true?"

      What indeed? What is right? What is true? What is valuable? What do people need in this life, or in the hereafter? What is our duty to ourselves, to truth, to God, to our family, to our fellow man? Don't expect Shaw to tell you - he wants you to do the work to figure it out for yourself."
    • 2/5
      A play that doesn't know whether it wants to be a light drawing-room comedy or a Greek tragedy. The juxtaposition of light and dark scenes just doesn't work.
    • 2/5
      I feel like the genius of the play's ideas merits more than 2 stars; HOWEVER, this wasn't an enjoyable read. Far from it. From hopelessly trying to decipher the writing style Shaw uses to portray the dialect of the poor to struggling to determine what exactly Shaw was recommending, I found it difficult to appreciate Major Barbara.

      What I think Shaw is trying to say is that only through wealth can we eradicate poverty. Which, in the case of Undershaft using his munitions factory to outfit potentially oppressed peoples with weapons, is valid. It's also valid since Undershaft's factory complex is a mini-socialist utopia where all the needs of the workers are met. But in reality, I don't agree with this "solution" to poverty. Unfortunately, most wealthy people aren't intelligent and kindly Undershafts. Most rich business owners work selfishly for themselves and fail to protect the needs of the poor.

      But then again, I may have completely missed the point of the play; I truly have no idea. Perhaps I would better appreciate this if I saw it staged. Then some of my problems--namely the unreadable dialect--would disappear. It's also rather funny in spots, and again, humor always translates better on stage.
    • 3/5
      This is one weird play. None of the characters seem like real people and they are all obnoxious. The main theme is an interesting one: an argument betwixt right and wrong. Shaw points out that all money for organizations like the Salvation Army comes from the war-makers and booze-makers. What meaning does salvation have in this context? Also, how much does a salvation borne of starvation fed mean? It actually occurs to me that the dynamic between charity/morality and between industry/immorality is somewhat reminiscent of The Fountainhead.

      George Bernard Shaw has a fairly recognizable style. The most noticeable aspect is his scene setup. He describes the scene down to every last detail. Where Shakespeare plays have exceedingly brief notes, Shaw goes on for a page or two any time there is a location change. I really have trouble imagining how the scene change in the middle of the third act would be accomplished, since two very precise sets would need to be made.

      The other thing about Shaw that I noticed is that he is much like Wilde, only perhaps not so funny. Both Wilde and Shaw were born Irishman. Shaw moved to England as a young boy. Still, you can see his judgment of the English in his writing, which is why the characters are so irritating. Like Wilde, the humor in the story comes from the mocking of the English, particularly the upper crust.

      Best line, which comes after Undershaft tells Barbara that he saved her from the seven deadly sins:
      "Yes, the deadly seven. [Counting on his fingers.] Food, clothing, firing, rent, taxes, respectability and children."
      And yes, I do love this largely because children are listed as a deadly sin. How hilarious is that?
    • 4/5
      Barbara, a major in the Salvation Army, is in the business of saving souls. Her father, a wealthy arms dealer, is in the business of war, death, and destruction. He sells weapons to anyone who wants them, without regard for the aims or ideals of the buyer.The conflict between Barbara and her father is at the heart of this play, which addresses social and philosophical questions in a brilliant and witty manner.This play made me both laugh and think, which had to be exactly Shaw's intention.
    • 5/5
      What a fantastic play. Although I expected not to enjoy this, I thoroughly loved it. It was funny and thought provoking. How I would love to know how his contemporaries reviewed the play to elicit such a long, defensive introduction.