Bernard Shaw: Theatrics

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In his introduction Dan H. Laurence notes that 'theatrics' connotes not only activities of a theatrical character but behaviour that manifests itself as theatricality. All the correspondence selected for this volume - most of it hitherto unpublished and none of it previously collected - relates to Bernard Shaw's theatre dealings and theatrical interest, attesting to the 'histrionic instinct' and 'theatrified imagination' (his own phrases) of the man who penned them. One hundred and eighty-two letters to one hundred and eighteen correspondents are included, starting from mid-1889, when Shaw had not yet completed his first play and was known instead as a music critic, journalist, socialist organizer, and street orator. The letters reveal a consummate man of the theatre: a dramatist, director, actor, designer, publicist, financial backer, translator, and critic concerned with such varied issues as censorship, theatre politics, prying journalists, and wireless and television performance. The letters are shaded with histrionic tones of assumed anger, irritation, and anguish. The style invariably is colloquial, free-flowing, ebullient - and personal.