I read this book for the 2019 Back
to the Classics Reading Challenge
Classic Play. I
was at a loss as to what to select for this category. By chance I was reading a
script of a wartime broadcast by George Orwell in which he mentioned that he
thought Arms and the Man and the
play discussed below as Shaw’s best. So that was good enough for me since I’ve
always liked Orwell better as a critic than a novelist (he pointed me to Smollett
too). Anyway, the script is at
this link and a BBC radio performance with a young Judith Anderson at
this link.
The Devil’s
Disciple (1896) – Bernard Shaw
I find reading the scripts of plays difficult, since it’s
hard for me, a word not an image guy, to fill in scenes, body language, and
inflections the way Shaw envisioned and even less experienced players can bring
out in a melodrama such as this. But this was much more enjoyable than I
expected because to make every word count Shaw forces me to go slow, discern
the meaning of every word, and hear the intonations in my head:
Major Swindon:
(unctuously) I can only do my
best sir, and rely (huffy pause) on the devotion of our countrymen.
General John Burgoyne:
May I ask, (warningly) Major,
(mildly surprised such a churl would) are you writing a melodrama?
Major Swindon:
(sullen, puzzled, expecting a
scolding) No, sir.
General John Burgoyne:
(monotone, trying it on for size)
What a pity! (sarcastically but not too) WHAT a pity!
Set in 1777 in New Hampshire during the our Revolutionary War, Shaw examines the self-justifying bloody policies of
imperial forces, such as hanging more or less innocent locals to terrorize
surviving friends and relatives into submission. Similarly, Shaw contrasts the
demands of other outside forces like organized religion to compel good behavior
with the individual’s duty to develop a sense of responsibility for one’s own
damn self. Shaw’s thesis is that it is a person’s duty to identify her own character
and know what she can and cannot accomplish in this messed-up world. Crisis is
to be welcomed as a chance to grow; a smooth life makes us sluggish, lazy,
reluctant. The characters Anthony Anderson and Dick Dudgeon grow as human
beings, finding their own true destiny and self-knowledge, through the prospect
of unjust summary execution at the hands of the British.
This is a good play. Reading the script makes me want to
see it acted. I refuse to watch the Hollywood version, as I would predict it
keeps the melodrama that Shaw is satirizing but cuts the ethical points that
Shaw wants to make.
You did it again! All twelve before the year's half-way mark. Well done. :D
ReplyDeleteWell, it is once around - my goal is to go around twice in order read the books I already have.
ReplyDeleteAnd here I thought I was an overachiever because I read two books for one category. :D
ReplyDeleteI read this play a few years ago. Very thought-provoking and historical. I enjoyed it too.
ReplyDelete