Major Barbara (Penguin Classics) - Softcover

George Bernard Shaw; Dan H. Laurence; Margery Morgan; Elizabeth T. Forter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140437908 ISBN 13: 9780140437904

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2001

Synopsis

Exclusive to Penguin Classics: the definitive text of one of Shaw’s most forward-looking plays—part of the official Bernard Shaw Library

A Penguin Classic

Andrew Undershaft, a millionaire armaments dealer, loves money and despises poverty. His estranged daughter Barbara, on the other hand, shows her love for the poor by throwing her energies into her work as a major in the Salvation Army, and sees her father as another soul to be saved. But when the Army needs funds to keep going, it is Undershaft who saves the day with a large check—forcing Barbara to examine her moral assumptions. Are they right to accept money that has been obtained by “Death and Destruction”? Full of lively comedy and sparkling debate, Major Barbara brilliantly tests the tensions between religion, wealth and power, benevolence and equality, and metaphors and realities of war.

This is the definitive text under the editorial supervision of Dan H. Laurence. This volume includes Shaw’s preface of 1906, the cast list from the first production of Major Barbara, and a list of his principal works.

About this title

From the Back Cover

'The greatest of our evils and the worst of our crimes is poverty ... our first duty, to which every other consideration should be sacrificed, is not to be poor'

Andrew Undershaft, a millionaire armaments dealer, loves money and despises poverty. His energetic daughter Barbara, on the other hand, shows her love for the poor by working as a Major in the Salvation Army. She sees her father as just another soul to be saved. But when the Salvation Army needs funds to keep going, it is Undershaft who saves the day. Is the Army right to accept money that has been obtained by 'Death and Destruction'? Barbara is forced to question her philanthropic motives, and what she discovers tells her something new about the world and its ways.

Full of lively comedy and sparkling debate, Major Barbara is also one of Shaw's most powerful and forward-looking plays. As Margery Morgan says, while Shaw was responding to 'a material and cultural situation that is now part of history', his work still has relevance 'in a period when new technologies drive the globalization of trade and the migration of populations ... and ancient forms of brutality and carnage have re-appeared.'

The definitive text, under the editorial supervision of Dan H. Laurence

From the Inside Flap

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 Coach

Kate Burton as Lady Britomart

Matthew Gaydos as Snobby Price/Bilton

Brian George as Morrison/Peter Shirley

Hamish Linklater as Stephen Undershaft

Henri Lubatti as Adolphus Cusins

Tony Palermo as Sound Effects Artist

Kirsten Potter as Barbara Undershaft

Roger Rees as Andrew Undershaft

Russell Soder as Charles Lomax

Amelia White as Rummy Mitchens/Mrs. Baines

Missy Yager as Sarah Undershaft

Sarah Zimmerman as Jenny Hill

Directed by Dakin Matthews. Recorded before a live audience at the Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles in December, 2007.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0140437908
• ISBN 13: 9780140437904
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 176