Event: Monaco-Ireland Arts Society, George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw at the Auditorium du Lycée Technique de Monte-Carlo (ave de l’Annonciade, Monte-Carlo; parking under the Lycée). 20.30h.

For St Patrick’s week festivities the Monaco-Ireland Arts Society will be performing extracts from the writings of G.B.S. The theme of the evening will be Bernard Shaw’s provocative views on war.  The programme will consist of the playlet “O’Flaherty V.C.”, “Dear Liar” (a selection of the letters between GBS and Mrs Patrick Campbell) and the 1st Act of “Arms and the Man”.

George Bernard Shaw needs no introduction, his is a household name and the adjective ‘Shavian’ has entered the English language.  Musical and dramatic critic, essayist, socialist, vegetarian, voluminous correspondent and prolific playwright (60 plays), his genius touched many facets.

When writing his plays, he heard with the inner ear of a musician the words that were to be spoken by the actors, and this makes his sentences flow with rhythmical ease.  Shaw has been accused of verbosity, but it is because his sentences are so pleasant to hear and speak, that his many long speeches are able to hold our attention.  His prefaces to his plays are a work of art in themselves.

GBS’s opinions on the futility of war caused him to be considered a traitor in an England caught up in the Great War and committed to ‘die for King and country’.  He wrote a trilogy of one-act plays on the subject of war, of which “O’Flaherty V.C.” (1915) was intended originally to be a Recruiting Pamphlet.

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