Page 7 - pygmalion demo

herself.” As a playwright, his portrayal of remarkable, clever, and powerful women
departed from the 19th-century stereotype of the male-dominated, sweetly fragile,
self-sacrificing female. Pygmalion clearly demonstrates this departure from the norms
of the day.

Shaw’s career as a playwright began in 1891 when he met J.T. Grein, the director
of The Independent Theatre—a new, progressive venue for “the theatre of ideas”
inspired by the realistic “problem plays” of Henrik Ibsen. Grein offered to read
Shaw’s play, Widowers’ House. He accepted it almost immediately, and it was first
publicly performed in 1892. Over the next six years, Shaw completed a collection
of dramas called Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant. Each attacked with varied ferocity
the social evils of the day. His writing successes continued to the eve of World War
I, when Pygmalion opened in Vienna in 1913 and in London in 1914. It was a hit.
However, with the outbreak of war, Shaw’s plain-spoken antiwar views and pamphlets
created uproar. He was shunned by friends and ostracized by the public. Nevertheless,
he continued writing plays, and by 1923, with the production of Saint Joan, he
succeeded in reviving his career. In 1925, Shaw was the recipient of the Nobel Prize in
Literature.

Pygmalion remains one of Shaw’s most famous plays. It was adapted to film in 1938,
earning Shaw an Academy Award for screenwriting. Continuing its rise to fame, a
musical adaptation—My Fair Lady—opened on Broadway in 1956 and ran for more
than nine years. A film version of the musical hit the movie screen in 1964 and earned
eight Academy Awards.
Shaw continued writing until his death on November 2, 1950, at age 94. At the time,
he was working on yet another play.

5
Pygmalion - George Bernard Shaw