“These Noxious Microbes”: Pathological Dramaturgy in George Bernard Shaw’s Too True to Be Good

This essay charts the interdependency of form and content in Bernard Shaw’s Too True to Be Good (1931). In this late play, the playwright, building upon his well-known attacks against medical theory and practice, views class privilege, colonial relations, and dramatic structure itself through the lens of disease. Angrily taking the stage in act one, the unusual, acerbic Microbe inaugurates Shaw’s dissection of imperialist discourse and attempt to purge the theatrical textual body of its pathogenic conventions.