Shaw Correspondence

BOOK REVIEWS Shaw Correspondence Dan H. Laurence, ed. Bernard Shaw Theatrics: Selected Correspondence of Bernard Shaw. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995. xxiii + 253 pp. $40.00 BERNARD SHAW THEATRICS, collected and edited by Dan H. Laurence, is a volume in the Selected Correspondence of Bernard Shaw series, under the general editorship of J. Percy Smith. The aim of the series is "to present accurate texts of letters almost all of which are previously unpublished and situate them in the context of Bernard Shaw's life and career"; the series will include Shaw's dialogs with various political, journalistic, and artistic colleagues and friends. The present volume of Shaw's letters to some 115 correspondents focuses on Shaw's dealings with the theatre and theatrical interests and shows Shaw in a variety of roles: the playwright seeking the best cast and conditions for production of his plays; the stage craftsman interested in all aspects of a production to be mounted or already on the boards; the artist exercising his poetry and wit as he wheedles, cajoles, and damns actors, managers, and other members of the theatrical enterprise; the hard-headed man of business maintaining tenacious control of the rights to publication and performance of all his works. It offers a fascinating glimpse at the "theatrical" personality of Shaw as well as a wealth of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century theatre history embedded in both the letters and in informative headnotes and endnotes by Laurence. A brief introduction by Laurence traces Shaw's early theatre experience up to 1889, the date of the first letter in the volume. By this date Shaw had been exposed to productions of every major dramatic touring company visiting Dublin during his years as a clerk in a Dublin land agency, but he had yet to complete his first play. Having immigrated to London in 1876 and having tried his hand at novel writing, he was in 1889 a journalist, music critic, socialist organizer and orator. The letters show the emerging (and eventually famous) playwright interested in every detail of the theatre, including casting, acting, stage design (including costuming and lighting), and management. From the first letter (a paean of praise to Janet Achurch, the actress who played Nora in the first London production of A Doll's House) to the last (a demand of 25 July 1950 to know more explicit detail about a proposed Arts Council production of Caesar and Cleopatra) Shaw shows an undiminished interest in the theatre of his day. 501 ELT 39:4 1996 Many of the letters are from Shaw to actors or actresses advising them how to deliver lines, when to pause, where and how to move on stage, how to interact with other characters. The following admonition to Lillah McCarthy (acting Raina in a 1907 production of Arms and the Man) is typical: "You . . . say 'How did you find me out?' in the act of sitting down. This is quite fatal to the effect. You must sit down, look at him, and then speak." Similarly detailed advice—ranging from timing of dialog, as here, to interpretation of character—is offered freely and often to actresses and actors. For example, Shaw advises H. K. Ayliff (acting the Elder in a 1932 production of Too True to Be Good) to experiment with "roaring like a madman" in the cave speech and to save delicate inflections for the later "supreme tragedy speech." While acknowledging that Ayliff has had great success in the role, Shaw explains, "I always feel guilty if I have left any actor with an unexploited possibility ." Sometimes this attempt to exploit every acting possibility in his plays is accompanied by character description and analysis, as when Shaw explains to Richard Mansfield that in acting Richard Dudgeon (in The Devil's Disciple) he must "get clean beyond all sentimental love rubbish" and convey "the full force and mystery" of Richard's self sacrifice that stands above or outside love and friendship. Many of the letters might serve if not as a guide then certainly as a starting place for actors and actresses contemplating roles in Shaw's plays. Whether the advice applies to an individual character or extends...