Hello and welcome to the National Trust podcast in this mini episode. We'll be meeting Evelyn Ellis, a key member of the Shaw Society, a dedicated group of Shaw fans who celebrate his work through live readings at Shaw's Corner. [
Sound of theatre performance] Something dreadful has happened. What's the matter? I've lost your poem!
The young actors who have starved of Shaw. Once they read it, they're absolutely hooked.
You just don't realize quite how prolific he was, how much work of his there is out there. So, you know, I'm always finding new ones. [ Sound of Theatrical Performance] These are my poems! So I gather... What a shame, Mrs bumpers shown them to you. You must think me an utter ass!
It's witty, it's clever and he's always putting across a message is relevant right up to this very minute. I'm Evelyn Ellis and I'm treasurer of the Shaw Society, but I'm also general dog's body! I just about do everything! A lot of the people who go to the Shaw plays at Shaw's Corner, they go because they love Shaw's Corner, they love Shaw but they don't really know about the Shaw society. And I think this year we gained a lot of support and we seem to have come alive since then.
Just, it's an exciting place to be because you're living it! It's living history from my understanding, it hasn't changed at all since he passed. And so to actually be acting in the place that the plays were written, I think that's- that's fantastic. And something that, that you don't get to do very often.
The Shaw Society was founded in 1941 which was Shaw's 86th birthday was a gentleman called Dr Fritz Lowenstein. And it was his idea to start a Shaw Society. It was put together really just to keep his memory going. I mean, he was still writing plays in his eighties and in his nineties and he was a bit suspicious about this idea. He didn't want to be [Sic: idolized] and he didn't- It didn't strike him as being a great idea, but he sanctioned it
and he wrote us a very funny letter. This is what Shaw said. The Browning Society was a terror to Browning. Shelley was dead. Shakespeare was dead. I shall soon be dead. We all provided a rallying point for the cooperation and education of kindred spirits and a forum for their irreconcilable controversies. So he says, so go ahead. But don't bother me about it. I'm old, deaf and dotty. In short, a has been. He knew that anybody who followed him is not going to be
straightforward. Everybody is very individual and there's a lot of discussion goes on shall we say! When I first joined, they were very political. It was very much based on the Fabian society and politics. And then bit by bit, we got a lot of theatre directors. So we're working more towards the theatre side. And now with these young actors, of course, now it's suddenly becoming performance based. And so that's even more exciting.
It's adaptable, the Shaw Society, I think. And it's benefiting from new influx of completely new people coming in. [
Sound of theatrical performance] I remember the evening when I sat here at your feet and read you those poems for the first time. I Shouldn't have let you. I see that now.
Today we're doing a very short play called How He lied to her husband. The characters don't actually have names. There's her and him and her husband. [
Sound of theatrical performance] You'll soon find out how much less than nothing she is. If you don't think a woman can't do any harm because she's only a scandal-
My name's Joe Sargeant and I'm an actor. [
Sound of theatrical performance] If I were going to the stake with you, I should still be so happy with you that I could hardly feel your danger more than my own.
Very early this year I performed the orderly in a play called Press Cuttings. And it's the most farcical character in something that's already very silly. I don't get much opportunity to play the, the the clown. So I think that's probably my favourite part yeah.
There's no division between the ages. We seem to mingle very well. I think probably because the young people who come into the Shaw Society they've already learnt to think for themselves. And therefore I think they seem to respect maturity just as much as youth and it just satisfies a need that they've got. We've now got about 30 young actors who've joined just for the pleasure of reading Shaw aloud. [
Sound of theatrical performance] Song before sunrise. Nothing would do me then. But I must reel off a set of songs to sunrise.
If we didn't have Shaw's Corner there, we wouldn't really have an anchor. We get so much information feeding back and there's so much studying going on there as well. A lot of the expertise that we have about Shaw comes through Shaw's Corner and through the National Trust and Sue Morgan, who's the curator there at the moment is very much part of the Shaw Society as well. We look on her as being our guardian angel.
When Shaw comes out of copyright in 2020 I think that'll make a lot of opportunities for Shaw plays to be put on. It'll be much freer and less expensive. The more that they can put Shaw across, the better it'll be for Shaw's Corner. I'm sure. I think there's a lot of enthusiasm. There's a lot of people waiting for that day to dawn.
Thanks for listening to this week's mini episode. Our next full episode will be available in a couple of weeks, but there'll be another mini episode available next week where we'll be meeting up with theatre producer Michael Friend to hear about his love affair with Shaw's plays. So until then from me, James Grasby, goodbye.