MAN AND SUPERMAN. In his sub title Bernard Shaw announces this work as "A Comedy and a Philosophy°; he might, with equal pertinence, have added °A Sermon on the Dangers of Romanticism and a Treatise on Biology, Anthropology and Social Psy chology" It is all these and it is, none the less, a successful play which has been greeted with almost continuous explosions of delighted merriment by theatre audiences on both sides of the Atlantic and has entertained still larger audiences in its printed form. The accepted canons of dramatic criticism break down before the audacious genius of a Bernard Shaw ; as his American biographer, Archibald Henderson, says, "He violates all the rules yet turns the trick.° That and Superman' is a thesis play goes without saying. The difficulty is that there are so many theses, so brilliantly, keenly and yet paradoxically expounded, that one leaves the playhouse, or lays down the book, in a state of high mental exhilaration tempered with an irritating sense of mental confusion. The main theme is, however, easily distinguish able; it is the contention, presented also in several other of Shaw's plays (notably (The Philanderer,' (You Never Can Tell' and that in the perennial love chase it is woman, driven by the Life Force, who is the pursuer and man, the quarry. This con tention is made to seem more arrestingly un orthodox by associating it with the Don Juan story. In the preface, addressed to the well-known English critic, Mr. A. B. Walk ley (who figures in the prologue to First Play) as "Trotter°), Shaw says, "You once asked me why I did not write a Don Juan play . . . The day of reckoning has arrived: here is the play lo The modern Don Juan as represented by the hero, John Tan ner, is, however, no romantic libertine but a social revolutionist, irreproachable in his private conduct, but implacable in his revolt against false and outworn conventions, determined to save himself from the bondage of love and marriage, but succumbing in the end to the in exorable demands of the Life Force as exempli fied by Ann Whitefield. The half dozen other characters are sharply drawn : Octavius, the lover for love's sake; his sister, Violet, who conducts her love affairs on business principles; Hector Malone, the straightforward young American who sees only black and white; his millionaire father, hard-headed and sof t hearted; Roebuck Ramsden, orthodox Philis tine; Mrs. Whitefield, the helpless and bewildered
mother, and, best of all, 'Enry Straker, chauf feur and "New Man.° The dialogue is Shaw at his best and there are no long monologues as the strictly philosophical discussion of the theme is segregated in the third act of which Shaw himself says—again in the preface — "I have . . . thrust into my perfectly mod ern three-act play a totally extraneous act in which my hero, enchanted by the air of the Sierra, has a dream in which his Mozartian ancestor appears and philosophizes at great length in a Shavio-Socratic dialogue with the lady, the statue and the devil.° By many critics and Superman' is re garded as Shaw's most important play since it combines some of his most cherished phil osophical and social theories with the ele ments of popular success. It has been cus tomary to identify Shaw himself with the character and opinions of Tanner, and Gran ville Barker, who played the part in the original production, was actually made up to resemble Shaw who, however, asserts that he had a certain popular Socialist orator in mind as Tanner's prototype. The play was first produced in May 1905, under the direction of Vedrenne and Barker, at the Court Theatre, London, where so many other Shaw plays have been introduced to the public. Its first Amer ican production was in September of the same year at the Hudson Theatre in New York with Robert Lorraine as director and also play ing the part of Tanner. In the acting version the Don Juan interlude is always omitted but it has been given separately at the Court Thea tre in London. For critical reference see bibli ography given in article on CANDIDA ; also Dick inson, Thomas H., Contemporary Drama of England.' an armed naval vessel regularly employed in the service of a govern ment for war purposes.