Word: shaw
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...George Bernard Shaw...
George Bernard Shaw started writing Widowers' Houses in 1885, but it was first produced exactly a century ago. It was his first play, a tentative attempt at social comedy; the frequent harshness and lack of subtlety will come as a surprise to most Shaw fans...
Nevertheless, there are both advantages and disadvantages to the immaturity of Shaw's vision: Certainly, it is often hard to laugh, since the revolutionary spirit shows raw. On the other hand, the audience is not presented with a pre-digested, conveniently packaged view of the evils of our society and what to do about them...
Louisa Grignon, playing Sartorius's daughter Blanche, creates a creditable version of this, Shaw's most confused character. Her success lies in the fact that she makes the audience feel a simultaneous attraction, revulsion, contempt and sympathy for her. Here, we see the beginnings of some of the rather questionable father-daughter relationships that Shaw went on to create. The director, Mort Kaplan, seems to have done his best to accentuate the suggestions of Blanche's Electra complex...
...other main characters of the play exhibit Shaw's roots in Dickens. There is Mr. Cokane (Ron Ritchell) who fulfills the potential of his name by providing everyone with the opiate of justification: He is capable of rationalizing everything, including Sartorius's ruthless treatment of the poor. He is a master of the euphemism, who describes himself as "moral, but not a moralist...