My Dear Loraine: Bernard Shaw's Letters to an Actor

Abstract

Robert Loraine (1876–1935) was a durable British actor and a decorated aviator in World War I. In 1905, he met Shaw in London, and an enduring friendship developed between the two Shaws (Bernard and Charlotte) and Loraine. Undeterred by the war wound that left him with a limp, Loraine played John Tanner in Man and Superman and Bluntschli in Arms and the Man many times over the years, in London, in New York, and on tour. He performed in productions of other Shaw plays as well and became celebrated for his interpretation of Cyrano de Bergerac, in a career marked by alternating hits and misses in a wide range of plays and even some films on both sides of the Atlantic.Editor Leonard Conolly has selected twenty-five of Shaw's letters to Loraine, dating from 1909 to 1933, fourteen of which have never been published and eleven of which are now presented in accurate, complete form in this volume. The title is both apt and predictable: all the letters begin with that salutation. The letters and Conolly's skillful annotations give us a clear running account of what was happening in Loraine's life, but, inevitably, this volume is most appealing and informative for what it reveals about Shaw. Not surprisingly, the letters are full of Shaw's lively thoughts on all sorts of subjects, including even his insistence, in letter 8, that Loraine's lameness should not prevent him from acting in Shaw's plays: “So long as you have a mouth left and one lung to keep it going, you will still be better than the next best: my pieces are not leg pieces” (31). Letter 3 gives us Shaw's very detailed advice to Loraine about the book he wanted to write about his adventures as a pilot during the war. In it, we encounter Shaw the shrewd amateur psychologist and practiced entertainer telling Loraine not to begin with writing “about” piloting or the air war, but first to put readers into the daily experience of what a pilot has to wear, how he gets into the cockpit, what it's like to put on the goggles, and only then to proceed gradually to a pilot's view of what happens in air warfare. He concludes by advising, “All good style comes from being sincere and saying what you mean as exactly as possible” (21).And of course Shaw's observations on plays and personalities will attract the most interest and attention. Letter 14, in which Shaw is berating Loraine at length for the broad, tongue-in-cheek style of the production of Arms and the Man he has recently seen, which featured Loraine as Bluntschli, demonstrates Shaw's mastery of the realistic, well-made play form, and indicates the kind of practical, detail-oriented director Shaw could be. Later, in letter 21, Shaw is again discussing how Arms and the Man should be played, suggesting that Loraine play Sergius, and musing that if he did so, with a “good Louka … the pair would become the heavy centre of the piece, with Bluntschli and Raina as comic relief” (63). (Some recent productions of the play still haven't understood Shaw's nuanced conception of Sergius, and reversed the emphasis Shaw wanted.)Even fairly knowledgeable readers may also be surprised by Shaw's unflattering comments about Mrs. Campbell's limitations as an actress and her negative impact on cast members, in letter 20. He makes the sharper edge of infatuation quite clear. Sometimes his caustic pen does not spare his own work; in letter 17, written in 1922, he describes Man and Superman as having “an ancient and fishlike smell by this time” (55). The last letter, written in 1933, after the Shaws visited the MGM studios in California, contains a perceptive putdown of American movies in that period: “The photography is beautiful: it leaves the British work nowhere. But the stuff they waste it on is pitiful” (71).Shaw, Loraine, and readers are well served by Conolly's editing. His introduction, annotations, and supplementary notes are admirably clear and helpful but not obtrusive. In particular, the annotations for each letter give us the context (i.e., what in Loraine's life or his own prompted Shaw to write the letter) we need to understand the references and appreciate the content.Finally, I'm imagining, rather enviously, what it must have been like to receive letters from Shaw. As they held the envelopes in their hands, those lucky people must have smiled in anticipation of what was inside: nimble wit and distinctive insights conveyed in eloquent, eminently readable prose.