BERNARD SHAW WRITING

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 28 January 1939, Page 5

BERNARD SHAW WRITING

FLAY ABOUT CHARLES II J ' MAY BE A FILM ; |By Air Mail—Own Correspondent! ' LONDON, 24th December. After writing about modern dicta- ! tors (in “Geneva”) Mr George Bernard ,' Shaw has turned to the seventeenth , century for material for his fiftieth - play. Its title is “In Good King r Charles’s Golden Days”. Charles 11, . Isaac Newton and George Fox are s among the characters. “The main point of this play about t Charles II” said Mr Shaw this week “is - that it is not about Nell Gwyn.” Asked 1 if he were planning it as a play or a ’ film he replied: “As neither. It’s only lately begun. It may work out as either.” d “The difference between play and ’ film is purely technical. There’s no- ' thing fundamentally different between f "the stage and the screen, once the g screen.” he added, “gets a little sense. I don’t see why it shouldn’t be a success both as a film and a play. “Pygmalion” was one of my greatest stage successes, j. and they tell me it‘s now just as much _ of a success on the films.” What interests Mr Shaw in the reign s of Charles II is “none of that usual Nell e Gwyn”’ stuff. s “The only attraction historical periods c have for me as a dramatist is the meetit ing between the great men of the time, o the men in this case whom Charles II ~ might have met. but, as far as we know, didn’t meet. Of course, he might s quite easily have met Isaac Newton. e Charles was interested in science, and gave the Royal Society its charter.” n|