| Why She Would Not | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Written by | George Bernard Shaw |
| Original language | English |
| Subject | A woman's life is modernised against her inclination |
| Genre | comedy |
Why She Would Not: A Little Comedy (1950) is the last play written by George Bernard Shaw, comprising five short scenes. The play may or may not have been completed at his death. It was published six years later.
Shaw's neighbour and illustrator Clare Winsten said that Shaw had described his initial idea for the plot to her, saying: "I am writing a play in which there is an old man who has a housekeeper who is so houseproud that she gradually eliminates everything that is personal in the house until he feels a perfect stranger there." [1] He also discussed the play with Nancy Astor, whose friend Judy Musters typed up Shaw's manuscript. [2] According to Michael Holroyd he wrote it in one week in July 1950, shortly before his 94th birthday. [3] He died four months later.
In the final version, the genders of the characters are reversed, with a male figure appearing in the "housekeeper" role.
A tramp called Henry Bossborn rescues a young woman from a robber in the woods. He learns that she is Serafina White, the granddaughter of an elderly businessman who runs the largest timber merchants in the country. As a reward, he asks for a job in the business — but on his own terms. She agrees. Soon he has transformed the business and increased its profits. He has also started his own property-development company. He knocks down the old mansion in which Miss White grew up and replaces it with a new super-efficient modernistic home. He expects to marry her and move into the new house. She is unhappy with the changes and refuses to marry him. He explains that he is serving the "life force" which demands renewal, but she is unwilling to fully accept this, and agrees only to friendship, not marriage.
The play was published in The London Magazine in August 1956. Because the play ends abruptly, it has been argued that Shaw intended to add one more scene. [4] However after the publication Dan H. Laurence examined the surviving manuscripts. In his essay "The Facts about Why She Would Not" (1956), he argued that the play was completed, noting that the shorthand version of the manuscript ends with the words "End of Scene 5 and of the play". [5] Holroyd says it was written quickly, and that the figure of Bossborn, who moves from a tramp to a form of superman, is a version of Shaw himself, including his inability to overcome his personal isolation. [3] In 2009 David Staller, founder of the Gingold Theatrical Group commissioned five different final scenes from five writers: Israel Horovitz, Michael Feingold, David Cote, Jeremy McCarter and Robert Simonson. [6] [7]
George Bernard Shaw, known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 1880s to his death and beyond. He wrote more than sixty plays, including major works such as Man and Superman (1902), Pygmalion (1913) and Saint Joan (1923). With a range incorporating both contemporary satire and historical allegory, Shaw became the leading dramatist of his generation, and in 1925 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Nancy Witcher Langhorne Astor, Viscountess Astor, was an American-born British politician who was the first woman seated as a Member of Parliament (MP), serving from 1919 to 1945.
A happy ending is an ending of the plot of a work of fiction in which almost everything turns out for the best for the main protagonists and their sidekicks, while the main villains/antagonists are defeated.
The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God is a book of short stories written by George Bernard Shaw, published in London by Constable and Company in 1932. The title story is a satirical allegory relating the experiences of an African black girl, freshly converted to Christianity, who takes literally the biblical injunction to "Seek and you shall find me." and attempts to seek out and actually speak to God.
Sir Michael de Courcy Fraser Holroyd is an English biographer.
Back to Methuselah by George Bernard Shaw consists of a preface and a series of five plays: In the Beginning: B.C. 4004 , The Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas: Present Day, The Thing Happens: A.D. 2170, Tragedy of an Elderly Gentleman: A.D. 3000, and As Far as Thought Can Reach: A.D. 31,920.
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There are no villains in the piece. Crime, like disease, is not interesting: it is something to be done away with by general consent, and that is all [there is] about it. It is what men do at their best, with good intentions, and what normal men and women find that they must and will do in spite of their intentions, that really concern us.
Pygmalion is a play by George Bernard Shaw, named after the Greek mythological figure. It premiered at the Hofburg Theatre in Vienna on 16 October 1913 and was first presented in German on stage to the public in 1913. Its English-language premiere took place at Her Majesty's Theatre in the West End in April 1914 and starred Herbert Beerbohm Tree as phonetics professor Henry Higgins and Mrs Patrick Campbell as Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle.
Heartbreak House: A Fantasia in the Russian Manner on English Themes is a play written by George Bernard Shaw, first published in 1919 and first played at the Garrick Theatre in November 1920. According to A. C. Ward, the work argues that "cultured, leisured Europe" was drifting toward destruction, and that "Those in a position to guide Europe to safety failed to learn their proper business of political navigation". The "Russian manner" of the subtitle refers to the style of Anton Chekhov, which Shaw adapts.
Robert Gould Shaw III was an American-born English socialite. He was the only child of Nancy Witcher Langhorne and Robert Gould Shaw II, a landowner and socialite. After his parents' divorce in 1903, he moved to England with his mother Nancy, who later married Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor and became the first woman in Britain to take her seat as a member of parliament.
How We Used to Live was a long-running British educational history television series, produced for most of its run by Yorkshire Television. The series, encompassing drama and documentary, remained in sporadic production from 1968 to 2002, airing on ITV and Channel 4.
Charlotte Frances Payne-Townshend was an Irish political activist in Britain. She was a member of the Fabian Society and was dedicated to the struggle for women's rights. She married the playwright George Bernard Shaw.
Why Marry? is a 1917 play written by American playwright Jesse Lynch Williams. It won the first Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1918.
In Good King Charles's Golden Days is a play by George Bernard Shaw, subtitled A True History that Never Happened.
Village Wooing, A Comedietta for Two Voices is a play by George Bernard Shaw, written in 1933 and first performed in 1934. It has only two characters, hence the subtitle "a comedietta for two voices". The first scene takes place aboard a liner, the second in a village shop. The characters are known only as "A" and "Z".
The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles: A Vision of Judgement is a 1934 play by George Bernard Shaw. The play is a satirical allegory about an attempt to create a utopian society on a Polynesian island that has recently emerged from the sea.
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The Glimpse of Reality, A Tragedietta (1909) is a short play by George Bernard Shaw, set Italy during the 15th century. It is a parody of the verismo melodramas in vogue at the time. Shaw included it among what he called his "tomfooleries".
David Staller is an American theatre director and actor. He is the founding artistic director of the Off-Broadway theatre company, Gingold Theatrical Group.