Methuen Drama, 2008

New Mermaids

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Acts: 3, Roles: Total (8), Female (3), Male (5), Unassigned (0)

...Although Arms and the Man derives its title from a translation of Virgil’s phrase ‘arma virumque’ in the Aeneid, it does not reflect the subject or mood of the classical epic poem about mythic heroes waging war. Rather, the play...

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...It's 1885, and Raina's bourgeois Bulgarian family is caught up in the heady patriotism of the war with Serbia. The beautiful, headstrong Raina eagerly awaits her fiancé's victorious return from battle - but instead meets a soldier who seeks...

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...Shaw’s warm and witty play challenged conventional wisdom about relationships between the sexes. A beautiful wife must choose between the two men who love her. A Court Theatre Company co-production. An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast...

Methuen Drama, 2008

New Mermaids

playtext

Acts: 3, Scenes: 2, Roles: Total (15), Female (5), Male (10), Unassigned (0)

...Major Barbara is a play about power, religion and capital: Shaw’s story of a conversion contest between an arms manufacturer and a Salvation Army Major is a provocative dramatization of the relationship between money and morality...

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...Barbara is a major in the Salvation Army - but she’s also the daughter of Andrew Undershaft, a man who’s made millions from the sale of weapons of war. The real battle, however, rages between between the devilish father and his idealistic...

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...Taking place on a single day in May 1909, a self-made millionaire and his family invite their future nobleman-in-law for a visit to their estate in Surrey, England. In this delightfully clever play, issues of gender, class, politics...

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...Modern parallels abound in the plight of Cambridge-educated mathematics wiz Vivie Warren, who discovers that her comfortable upbringing was financed in unspeakable ways. Shaw pits a clever heroine against a memorable gallery of rogues...

Methuen Drama, 2008

New Mermaids

playtext

Acts: 5, Roles: Total (12), Female (6), Male (6), Unassigned (0)

...Pygmalion is the famous story of phonetics expert Henry Higgins and his bid to transform the impoverished flower girl Eliza Doolittle into a society lady. From Henry’s attempts to iron Eliza’s resilient vowels and colourful vocabulary...

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...One of Shaw’s most enduring works, Pygmalion is an insightful comedy of class relations and perceptions, as played out between a Cockney flower girl and the irascible speech professor who has taken her on as a pet project. Described...

Methuen Drama, 2008

New Mermaids

playtext

Scenes: 7, Roles: Total (24), Female (2), Male (22), Unassigned (0)

...Saint Joan is Bernard Shaw’s homage to one of history’s most iconic figures, Jeanne d’Arc. First performed in 1923 in New York, the play first premiered in London the following year, with Sybil Thorndike in the title role...

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...Shaw stands “do or die” melodrama on its head in this tale set during the American Revolution. A young hero who disdains heroism makes the ultimate sacrifice for honor and country. An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring...

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...The Revolutionary War serves as the backdrop for this brilliant satire penned by Bernard Shaw. Self-professed ‘devil's disciple’ Dick Dudgeon (Mike Gwilym) -- who long ago scorned the piety and traditional values of his mother (Elizabeth...

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...The blowhards, the know-it-alls, the scrupulous and the impecunious are all targets for Shaw’s incisive wit in his classic satire of the medical profession. A well-respected physician is forced to choose whom he shall save: a bumbling...

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...You Never Can Tell was originally born out of a bet that Shaw couldn’t write a “seaside comedy” (a popular theatrical genre at that time). The result is perhaps the most surprising of Shaw’s plays, complete with marital mayhem, tangled...