Synopsis
Michael Holroyd calls the plays "a masterpiece of wishful thinking" & calls them sf. But Shaw uses science fictioneering in Methuselah to add plausibility to scenarios & to keep readers entertained while he propounds his vision of the human destiny. His prime interest wasn't scientific, but political, as stated in the Preface where he discusses changes he considers essential before humanity can govern itself successfully. The final play, As Far as the Mind Can Reach, offers no solution to the problem: Humans evolve to the point of becoming free-ranging vortices of energy, able to wander, solitary, thru the cosmos, thus requiring no government at all. Furthermore, one of his last plays, Farfetched Fables (1950) also classifies as sf. The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles (1934) comes close.
Shaw had an exalted opinion of Methuselah. In the press release he wrote for its publishers (Constable & Co. London) he said it would "interest biologists, religious leaders & lovers of the marvellous in fiction as well as lovers of the theatre" & described it as his supreme work in dramatic literature. He considered it a book for reading rather than playing on the stage, & was agreeably surprised when Lawrence Langner in NY & Barry Vincent Jackson in Birmingham insisted on producing it despite expectations of monetary loss, which were promptly justified. Unlike the plays he wrote for staging, which include precise descriptions of the settings, the details of stage settings for Methuselah are sketchy, serving only to direct the imagination of the reader. When, e.g., the stage director for the Birmingham production asked how the Serpent was to be presented, he responded with a clumsy sketch & suggested an artist be employed to design costume, coloring & lighting. BBC radio, in contrast, was able to provide lavish scenery by sheer power of description for its 1958 production.
Shaw's scientific rationale for evolving long-lived humans depended on the inheritance of acquired characteristics. This accorded with the theories of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, even tho Lamarkism was in decline & Darwin's views were ascendant in 1920, when the plays were written, His adherence to Lamarkian principles possibly was reinforced by his adulation of Stalinism. Under Stalin, thanks to the influence of Trofim Denisovich Lysenko (All-Union Institute of Agricultural Sciences Director), Mendalian genetics was officially rejected in favor of Lysenkoism, which was derived from the Lamarkian beliefs of horticulturist Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin. Lysenkoism remained Soviet policy, enforceable by severe penalties, until 1964, when it was discredited.
According to Louis Crompton in Shaw the Dramatist (pp. 252f):
"The most extensive scholarly treatment of Back to Methuselah is H.M. Geduld's six-volume variorum edition of the play submitted as a doctoral thesis at Birkbeck College, University of London (1961). This thesis, which runs to fourteen hundred pages, includes a discussion of the intellectual & literary background, a collation of some forty editions of the text, annotations to the five parts, preface & postscript, & an account of the theatrical history of the play."
About the Author
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was an Irish playwright and critic, whose plays are famous for their wit, eloquence and interest in provocative ideas. Inspired mainly by the social dramas of Ibsen, he began to write plays of his own while working as an arts critic, though they were not performed until later. His play Mrs Warren's Profession was banned by the Lord Chamberlain until 1925. Unable to find commercial audiences for his plays, Shaw wrote extensive Prefaces for them, elaborating on the social and moral themes that they explore. Subsequent plays include Major Barbara, Pygmalion, Heartbreak House, Back to Methuselah, and Saint Joan. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1925, and an Academy Award in 1938, for the screenplay of the film adaptation of Pygmalion, a film which would later form the basis for My Fair Lady.
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