Lanterna Rally

Author: George Bernard Shaw

Publisher:

Published: 2013-09-20

Total Pages: 142

ISBN-13: 9781492771388

Notes from The Theatre - Volume 16 (1912): It matters not whether this play throws doubt upon its authorship, no one but George Bernard Shaw could have written "Fanny's First Play," and if one likes Shaw, here is the Shavian cynic and philosopher at his daring best. Fanny O'Dowda, daughter of a Count of the old regime, writes while at Cambridge a play which her father promises shall be acted by real actors and reviewed by real critics, the authors' identity of course, being concealed. As an induction, O'Dowda, the courtly aesthete of pre-Victorian days, has an interview with the very commercial theatrical manager of modern times, who cites the methods he employed to get the critics there, a colloquy of delightful wit in its contrasting values. Then come the critics, cheerful satires on the originals of London, in which more fun is poked at their pomposity and ignorance. The curtain draws and "Fanny's First Play" be ins. It is a satire on two smug puritanical British middle-class families. The younger representatives are tentatively engaged, but each gets into a scrape and are respectively sent to jail. The boy has yielded to the fascinations of Darling Dora, a music hall favorite, and the girl has carried on a perfectly harmless flirtation with a French naval officer. The consternation of their parents is presented with much humorous force and the various family councils provide the author with numerous opportunities for the display of his characteristic cynical observations. Nothing escapes his biting satire, convention, religion, sociology, politics, all make "copy" for him, and the result is dialogue that fairly corruscates with scintillant wit. The dénouement is particularly Shavian. The boy pairs off with Dora and the militant daughter of the house of Knox marries the family butler, who by the death of an elder brother becomes a Duke. Then follows the epilogue, more brilliant fooling at the expense of the critics, who, ignorant of the authorship, hesitate to commit themselves as to the value of the piece. For as one says: "If he's a good author, then it's a good piece; but if he's bad, then the play must be bad.".... "Fanny's First Play" is an intellectual treat. * * * * * "The Dark Lady of the Sonnets," the shorter piece, was written to aid the Shakespeare Memorial National Theatre in its appeal for a public endowment.