THE SHAW BOOM,

Evening Post, Volume LXXI, Issue 47, 24 February 1906, Page 13

THE SHAW BOOM,

The George Bernard Shaw Boom, which continual with increased virulence in the Northern Hemisphere, i» as inexplicable M the previous neglect of this remarkable man, gays a Melbourne writer. v The ex< tmordlnary cleverness that Mr, Shaw ex* hiblt» in all his work is very little of it suitable for purposes of dramatic produc- . ductlon. Though written ir dialogue, ' -hli works are satires and sermons, rather than plays, and in many scenes tho Rt<igo direction*— 'extending over a whole pageare far, more important than the dialogue. In a preface to one of his volumes of ploys, Shaw explains that he wrote them because his medical, advisor ordered him "complete mental rent," and his great virtue Is that while he is externally perpetrating what is vulgarly known as "leg* .pulling," Mr, Shaw never hesitates to satirise his own egotism and pretentious nees. Trio most nclablo of all Shaw's plays and ono of tho cleverest Is "The Devil'/j Disciple-," a story of tho Amorican war of the revolution. It is written 'wholly from the American standpoint, and is so severe on English military methods thatMi 1 . Shaw did not attempt to produce it in England. It was staged in Now York four or five years ago, and, on visiting the- thentro, the author was so <11hgustcd to find tho actor who look the part of the hero turn that cynical person into I an ordinary molodrumutio Bontimonlalisl, I that he took the first boat buck to England. Until last year "Tho DeVll's Dlbciple" was tho only ono of Mr. Shaw's plays that has been produced. Now, the most unactable of all "Man and Superman," haa found a manager, and so great is tho rush for Shaw's plays that tho last mail tells of "Gaaiiel Byron's Profession," being produced in Amerca, with tho exchampion pugilist, James J, Corbfilt. in the name part. In the navel of the same title, "Cftshel Byrop" in a pugilist of nobllity, tempered with tho iiiovltablo cynicism, ahd already Mr. Shaw hns dramatised tho work into a short drama in Wank verso, written, ho states, in this form, because he had not time- to writ© it in prose.