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Summary
Summary
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 daughter as they answer the question: does salvation come through faith or finance? This sparkling comedy traverses family relations, religion, ethics and politics - as only Shaw, the master dramatist, can!An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring:JB Blanc as Bill Walker/Dialect CoachKate Burton as Lady BritomartMatt Gaydos as Snobby Price/BiltonBrian George as Morrison/Peter ShirleyHamish Linklater as Stephen UndershaftHenri Lubatti as Adolphus CusinsTony Palermo as Sound Effects ArtistKirsten Potter as Barbara UndershaftRoger Rees as Andrew UndershaftRussell Soder as Charles LomaxAmelia White as Rummy Mitchens/Mrs. BainesMissy Yager as Sarah UndershaftSarah Zimmerman as Jenny HillDirected by Dakin Matthews. Recorded before a live audience at the Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles in December, 2007.
Author Notes
Renowned literary genius George Bernard Shaw was born on July 26, 1856 in Dublin, Ireland. He later moved to London and educated himself at the British Museum while several of his novels were published in small socialist magazines.
Shaw later became a music critic for the Star and for the World. He was a drama critic for the Saturday Review and later began to have some of his early plays produced.
Shaw wrote the plays Man and Superman, Major Barbara, and Pygmalion, which was later adapted as My Fair Lady in both the musical and film form. He also transformed his works into screenplays for Saint Joan, How He Lied to Her Husband, Arms and the Man, Pygmalion, and Major Barbara. Shaw won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925.
George Bernard Shaw died on November 2, 1950 at Ayot St. Lawrence, Hertfordshire, England.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 10 Up-This live theater production of George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara examines newsworthy questions about war, morality, and salvation. Set in pre-World War I London, the play opens as Lady Britomart brings together her adult children-Barbara, Sarah, and Stephe-with their long-estranged father, munitions mogul Andrew Undershaft. It appears that Undershaft will disinherit his children because his company has a tradition of giving the arms factory to a capable adult born out of wedlock. The children prefer to forgo their fortune, especially Barbara who has risen through the ranks of the Salvation Army. Barbara and her fiance, Adolphus Cusins, face a dilemma when generous donations from Undershaft and a liquor manufacturer are the only way their organization can help London's poor. When it's learned that Cusins' parents aren't married under English law, Undershaft offers him the arms business. Will Cusins lose Barbara if he chooses the inheritance? Can he bring true reform if he owns the arms used for strife? The conclusion leaves some questions unanswered. Listeners may find it distracting that occasionally the audience responds to action not reflected in the script. The cast of 12 keeps the action lively and the dialogue crisp. It would have been helpful for teachers to have the CD case list the acts by track. Despite the serious topics, and sometimes protracted conversations on morality, this adaptation of Shaw's comedy has many thoroughly British, humorous moments. A supplemental purchase for high school library's supporting a British literature curriculum.-Barbara S. Wysocki, Cora J. Belden Library, Rocky Hill, CT (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Starred Review. The classic Shaw play is interpreted by this extremely talented cast of 12 performers, which mounts a rousing, unforgettable show complete with incredibly well-produced and realistic sound effects that capture everything from doors creaking open, bustling crowds on city streets and impatient horses ready to trot. Roger Rees as the elder Undershaft and Kirsten Potter as his daughter Barbara are standouts. The two play off each another very well and offer some truly memorable arguments that are the cornerstone of the story. The engaging cast sweeps listeners off to the cobblestone streets of old England. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved All rights reserved.
Excerpts
Excerpts
It is after dinner on a January night, In the library in Lady Britomart Undershaft's house in Wilton Crescent. A large and comfortable settee is in the middle of the room, upholstered in dark leather. A person sitting on it [it is vacant at present] would have, On his right, Lady Britomart's writing table, with the lady herself busy at it; a smaller writing table behind him on his left; the door behind him on Lady Britomart's side; and a window with a window seat directly on his left. Near the window is an armchair. Lady Britomart is a woman of fifty or thereabouts, well dressed and yet careless of her dress, well bred and quite reckless of her breeding, well mannered and yet appallingly outspoken and indifferent To The opinion of her interlocutory, amiable and yet perem-ptory, arbitrary, and high-tempered To The last bearable degree, and withal a very typical managing matron of the upper class, treated as a naughty child until she grew into a scolding mother, and finally settling down with plenty of practical ability and worldly experience, limited in the oddest way with domestic and class limitations, conceiving the universe exactly as if it were a large house in Wilton Crescent, though handling her corner of it very effectively on that assumption, and being quite enlightened and liberal as To The books in the library, The pictures on the walls, The music in the portfolios, And The articles in the papers. Excerpted from Major Barbara by George Bernard Shaw All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
