SHAW AT MALVERN.

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 68, 17 September 1936, Page 21

SHAW AT MALVERN.

Writing from Malvern in the London Observer," Ivor Brown intimates that Bernard Shaw is at work on a new play, "Geneva," which, the dramatist states, "will go to the very heart of politics." When G.B.S. heard that the actors and actresses taking part in the festival were subscribing to present him with a handsome eightieth birthday gift, he forbade them to do so, and decided to celebrate the day by giving £100 to the Actors' Benevolent Fund. Incidentally, Mr. Brown considered the choice of Wendy Hiller as Saint Joan was "amply justified." He wrote:—"lt is a part in which nobody of any competence has been known to fail, but it is also a part which is acted differently and with varying kinds of distinction every time that it is performed. Miss Hiller struck the right note of sturdy, bucolic, rosycheeked simplicity. She was a true peasant, a girl under twenty, straight from the farm yard, and inflamed with1 a mystical faith in her power to command an army as long as God was commanding her. There could be no doubt that she was at the centre of one of the most vital and interesting productions of the play which have so far been given." This young actress made a name for herself in both Londpn and New York in "Love _qn;ithe; Dole."