| Man and Superman | |
|---|---|
 Harley Granville Barker as John Tanner andLillah McCarthy as Anne Whitefield in first production, Royal Court Theatre, London, 1905 | |
| Written by | George Bernard Shaw |
| Date premiered | 23 May 1905 |
| Place premiered | Stage Society,Royal Court Theatre, London |
| Original language | English |
| Genre | Satirical comedy |
Man and Superman is a four-actdrama written byGeorge Bernard Shaw in 1903, in response to a call for Shaw to write a play based on theDon Juan theme.[1]Man and Superman opened at theRoyal Court Theatre in London on 21 May 1905 as a four-act play produced by theStage Society, and then byJohn Eugene Vedrenne andHarley Granville-Barker on 23 May, without Act III ("Don Juan in Hell").[2] A part of the third act (Scene 2), was performed when the drama was staged on 4 June 1907 at the Royal Court. The play was not performed in its entirety until 1915, when the Travelling Repertory Company played it at theLyceum Theatre,Edinburgh.
Mr. Whitefield has recently died, and hiswill indicates that his daughter Ann should be left in the care of two men, Roebuck Ramsden and John Tanner. Ramsden, a venerable old man, distrusts John Tanner, an eloquent youth with revolutionary ideas, whom Shaw's stage directions describe as "prodigiously fluent of speech, restless, excitable (mark the snorting nostril and the restlessblue eye, just the thirty-secondth of an inch too wide open), possibly a little mad".[3] In spite of what Ramsden says, Ann accepts Tanner as herguardian, though Tanner does not want the position at all. She also challenges Tanner's revolutionary beliefs with her own ideas. Despite Tanner's professed dedication toanarchy, he is unable to disarm Ann's charm, and she ultimately persuades him to marry her,[4] choosing him over her more persistent suitor, a young man, Tanner's friend, named Octavius Robinson.
The long third act of the play, which shows Don Juan himself having a conversation with several characters inHell, is often cut. Charles A. Berst observes of Act III:
Paradoxically, the act is both extraneous and central to the drama which surrounds it. It can be dispensed with, and usually is, on grounds that it is just too long to include in an already full-length play. More significantly, it is in some aspects a digression, operates in a different mode from the rest of the material, delays the immediate well-made story line, and much of its subject matter is already implicit in the rest of the play. The play performs well without it.[8]
Don Juan in Hell consists of a philosophical debate between Don Juan (played by the same actor who plays Jack Tanner), and theDevil, with Doña Ana (Ann) and theStatue of Don Gonzalo, Ana's father (Roebuck Ramsden) looking on. This third act is often performed separately as a play in its own right, most famously during the 1950s in a stage production featuringCharles Boyer as Don Juan,Charles Laughton as the Devil,Cedric Hardwicke as the Commander andAgnes Moorehead as Doña Ana.[9] This version was also released as aspoken word album onLP, but is yet to appear on CD. In 1974–1975,Kurt Kasznar,Myrna Loy,Edward Mulhare andRicardo Montalbán toured nationwide inJohn Houseman's reprise of the production, playing 158 cities in six months.[10]
AlthoughMan and Superman can be performed as a lightcomedy of manners, Shaw intended the drama to be something much deeper, as suggested by the title, which comes fromFriedrich Nietzsche's philosophical ideas about the "Übermensch" (although Shaw distances himself from Nietzsche by placing the philosopher at the very end of a long list of influences).[5][11][12] As Shaw notes in his "Epistle Dedicatory" (dedication to theatre criticArthur Bingham Walkley) he wrote the play as "a pretext for a propaganda of our own views of life".[5] The plot centres on John Tanner, author of "The Revolutionist's Handbook and Pocket Companion", which is published with the play as a 58-page appendix. Both in the play and in the "Handbook" Shaw takes Nietzsche's theme that mankind is evolving, throughnatural selection, towards "superman" and develops the argument to suggest that the prime mover in selection is the woman: Ann Whitefield makes persistent efforts to entice Tanner to marry her yet he remains a bachelor. As Shaw himself puts it: "Don Juan had changed his sex and become Dona Juana, breaking out of the Doll's House and asserting herself as an individual".[5][13] This is an explicit, intended reversal ofTirso de Molina's playThe Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest, more widely known as the source ofDa Ponte'sDon Giovanni; here Ann, representing Doña Ana, is the predator – "Don Juan is the quarry instead of the huntsman," as Shaw notes.[5][14]
Ann is referred to as "theLife Force" and represents Shaw's view that in every culture, it is the women who force the men to marry them rather than the men who take the initiative.[5] Sally Peters Vogt proposes: "Thematically, the fluid Don Juan myth becomes a favorable milieu forCreative Evolution", and that "the legend ... becomes inMan and Superman the vehicle through which Shaw communicates his cosmic philosophy".[15]
In 1905, theHudson Theatre produced the play for 192 performances. Produced byCharles Dillingham.
In 1917, theAbbey Theatre produced the play for 7 performances. The production was directed by J. Augustus Keogh.[16]
In 1925, the Abbey Theatre produced the play for seven performances. The production was directed by Michael J. Dolan.[17]
In 1927, the Abbey Theatre produced the play for seven performances. The production was directed byLennox Robinson.[18]
In 1946, theBBC Third Programme broadcast the entire play over the wireless for the first time. The production was directed by Peter Watts. It starred John Garside,Leonard Sachs,Sebastian Shaw,Grizelda Hervey amongst others.[19]
In 1968, the BBC adapted the play for television as aPlay of the Month. Only a short sequence from this play still exists.
In 1977–1978, theRSC produced the play at London'sSavoy Theatre.[20]
In 1981, London'sNational Theatre staged a production, with the "Don Juan in Hell" act included, directed byChristopher Morahan and starringDaniel Massey as Jack Tanner andPenelope Wilton as Ann Whitefield.[21]
In 1982, directorDavid Wheeler staged a production at theCharles Playhouse in Boston, starringRichard Jordan andDiane Salinger. During rehearsals, the play was gradually whittled down to a three-hour length, but the "Don Juan in Hell" sequence survived intact.[22]
In 1982, a television version withPeter O'Toole in the starring role andBarry Morse as The Devil was first broadcast in the United Kingdom.[23]
In 1990,South Coast Repertory inCosta Mesa, California staged a production, with the "Don Juan in Hell" act included, directed by Martin Benson and starringJohn de Lancie as Jack Tanner and his wife Marnie Mosiman as Ann Whitefield.[24]
In 1996, to celebrateBBC Radio 3's 50th Anniversary,Sir Peter Hall directed an audio production withRalph Fiennes as Jack Tanner,Judi Dench as Mrs. Whitefield,John Wood as Mendoza,Juliet Stevenson as Ann Whitefield,Nicholas Le Prevost as Octavius Robinson andJack Davenport as Hector Malone.
In 2012, theIrish Repertory Theatre and Gingold Theatrical Group presented a revival directed and adapted byDavid Staller and starringMax Gordon Moore as Jack Tanner.[25]
In 2015, London'sNational Theatre staged a production, with the "Don Juan in Hell" act included, directed bySimon Godwin and starringRalph Fiennes as Jack Tanner andIndira Varma as Ann Whitefield.[26]
In 2019, Canada'sShaw Festival staged the full production withMartha Burns as Mendoza/The Devil, Gray Powell as Jack Tanner andSara Topham as Ann.[27]
Shaw…holding the mirror up to Nietzsche
