More Shaw Advice to the Players of Major Barbara

Abstract

No subsequent production of Major Barbara commanded Bernard Shaw's attention as fully as did the original one in 1905 at the Royal Court Theatre, in which he served as director as well as author. Nonetheless, revivals and contemplated revivals elicited from him lively suggestions about how to stage and perform this complex drama; and in a few of these he again became an active participant in rehearsals. The surviving comments, however incomplete, afford a useful supplement to his earlier counsel. They also add valuable details to Shaw's own commentary on the play and to our knowledge of him as peerless director of his own dramas.