Man and Superman

Man and Superman (1905). Shaw's epic look at the battle of the sexes was first presented here by Charles Dillingham in 1905 with Robert Loraine and Clara Bloodgood, running for six months. The production omitted the long act known as “Don Juan in Hell,” a policy followed by most subsequent stagings. Loraine also headed the cast of a 1912 revival, Maurice Evans starred in a highly praised 1947 revival that chalked up 294 performances, while “Don Juan in Hell” was given an all‐star reading with tremendous success in 1951 with Charles Boyer, Charles Laughton, Cedric Hardwicke, and Agnes Moorehead. The full‐length work was mounted by the Phoenix Theatre in 1964 with Ellis Rabb, Rosemary Harris, and Nancy Marchand, and by the Circle in the Square in 1978 with George Grizzard, Ann Sachs, and Philip Bosco.

George Bernard Shaw 1903

Subtitled “A Comedy and a Philosophy,” George Bernard Shaw’s Man and Superman is a comedy of ideas: its characters discuss ideas such as capitalism, social reform, male and female roles in courtship, and other existential topics in long speeches that resemble arias in an opera. The play’s verbosity makes it unwieldy to produce full scale, so the Epistle in the beginning and the Revolutionist’s Handbook at the end are usually not performed, and the scene in Hell, although containing the bulk of the play’s philosophical musings, is often dropped.

What is left is basically a light-hearted parlor play demonstrating Shaw’s idea of the Life Force, the force that drives women to pursue a mate in order to attempt to produce a Superman. This theory, along with a theory of eugenic breeding to accompany it, preoccupied Shaw for the rest of his life. The theories expounded in the play are full of contradictions, typical of Shaw’s writing, and critics have devoted countless books and articles to sorting them out. Early critics called the play tedious and dramatically unsound, but today it is considered a landmark in the genre of the “idea play.”

Man and Superman by George Bernard Shaw was written in 1903 as a four act drama, responding to those who had questioned Shaw as to why he had never written a play based on the Don Juan theme. Man and Superman opened at The Royal Court Theatre in London on 23 May 1905 without the performance of the 3rd Act. A part of the act, Don Juan in Hell (Act 3, Scene 2), was performed when the drama was staged on June 4, 1907 at the Royal Court. The play was not produced in its entirety until 1915 by the Travelling Repertory Company at the Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh.

The long third act of the play is often cut. Don Juan in Hell consists of a philosophical debate between Don Juan (played by the same actor who plays Jack Tanner), and the Devil (Mendoza, a Spaniard), with Doña Ana (Ann) and the Statue of Ana's guardian (Roebuck Ramsden, an aged acquaintance of Tanner's and Ann's Guardian) looking on. Don Juan in Hell is often performed separately as a play in its own right, most famously in the 50's in a concert version with Charles Boyer as Don Juan, Charles Laughton as the Devil, Cedric Hardwicke as the Commander, and Agnes Moorehead as Doña Ana. This version was also released as a spoken word album on LP, but has yet to appear on CD. However, the complete performance recording is now available at various sites on the Internet.

Although Man and Superman can be performed as a light comedy of manners Shaw intended the drama to be something much deeper, as suggested by the title. This title comes from Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophical ideas about the "Übermensch" ("Superman"). The plot centers on John Tanner, author of "The Revolutionist's Handbook and Pocket Companion," which is published with the play as a 58-page appendix. Tanner is a confirmed bachelor despite the pursuits of Ann Whitefield and her persistent efforts to make him marry her. Ann is referred to as "the Life Force" and represents Shaw's view that in every culture, it is the women who force the men to marry them rather than the men who take the initiative.

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Man and Superman

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Man and Superman

• Man and Superman, digitized copy of the first edition from Internet Archive.
• Review, photos and other information
• Read online at Project Gutenberg
• "The Revolutionist's Handbook and Pocket Companion", an appendix to Man and Superman (page images)
• "Old Time Radio". MP3 downloads of 1950 performance.

v • d • e The plays of George Bernard Shaw Passion Play · Un Petit Drame · Widowers' Houses · The Philanderer · Mrs. Warren's Profession · Arms and the Man · Candida · The Man of Destiny · You Never Can Tell · The Devil's Disciple · The Gadfly · Caesar and Cleopatra · Captain Brassbound's Conversion · The Admirable Bashville · Man and Superman · John Bull's Other Island · How He Lied to Her Husband · Major Barbara · Passion, Poison, and Petrifaction · The Doctor's Dilemma · The Interlude at the Playhouse · Getting Married · The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet · Press Cuttings · Fascinating Foundling · The Glimpse of Reality · Misalliance · The Dark Lady of the Sonnets · Fanny's First Play · Androcles and the Lion · Overruled · Beauty's Duty · Pygmalion · Great Catherine · The Music Cure · O'Flaherty V.C. · The Inca of Perusalem · Augustus Does His Bit · Macbeth Skit · Annajanska, the Bolshevik Empress · Heartbreak House · Back to Methuselah · A Glimpse of the Domesticity of Franklin Barnabas · Jitta's Atonement · Saint Joan · The Apple Cart · Too True to Be Good · How These Doctors Love One Another! · Village Wooing · On the Rocks · The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles · The Six of Calais · The Millionairess · Arthur and the Acetone · Cymbeline Refinished · Geneva · In Good King Charles's Golden Days · The British Party System · Buoyant Billions · Farfetched Fables · Shakes versus Shav · Why She Would Not

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