Hello and welcome to the National Trust podcast in this mini episode. We'll be hearing Michael Friend who produces Shaw's plays at Shaw's Corner about his personal connection to Shaw's writings and his home.
What I like about Shaw is how well written his plays are as pieces of theatre. They really work and they give actors the most wonderful opportunities. [
Sound of radio drama] I suppose you were going in seriously for politics someday Jack?
I can't pinpoint exactly the first time I heard Shaw on the radio, but it would have been about 1948 possibly. When I was a small boy at school. [
Sound of radio drama] Wake up. Do you think I've been asleep? Do you? You throw me into a trance that I can't move hand or foot? I might have been buried alive, It's a mercy I wasn't! But I found you all out anyhow. I know the sort of people I'm among now. I've heard every word you said you and your precious father and you too.
I think Heartbreak House is one of his finest plays. The scene we're going to hear now is between the capitalist Boss Mangan, who thinks he's going to marry the young girl Ellie Dunn and they're visiting in a country house and Hesione, one of the daughters, of the house is determined she's not going to let Ellie marry this Man. She thinks he's an appalling rapacious capitalist. And Ellie has made it clear just before that she's not going to marry
Boss Mangan. He gets very upset. She strokes his head to calm him down and inadvertently hypnotizes him. He is then left on stage for about 10 minutes in a hypnotic trance while various people come in and discuss him and pull his character to pieces thinking that he is completely oblivious. And when this scene starts, Ellie has just woken him up to Hesione Hushabye's horror. She discovers that he said every word they've said. So she's now got to talk herself out of this difficult situation. [
Sound of theatrical performance] Pretending to be asleep? Do you think if I was only pretending that I'd have sprawled there helpless and listened to such unfairness, such lies, such injustice and plotting and backbiting and slandering of me if I could have up and told you what I thought of you? It's a wonder I didn't burst. You dreamt it all, Mr Mangan. We were only saying how beautifully peaceful you looked in your sleep. That was all, wasn't it Ellie?
Believe me, Mr Mangan. All those unpleasant things came into your mind in the last half second before you woke, Ellie rubbed your hair the wrong way and the disagreeable sensation suggested a disagreeable dream. I believe in dreams. So do I, but they go by contraries, don't they? I shan't forget to my dying day that when you gave me the glad eye that time in the garden you were making a fool of me. That was a dirty low mean thing to do. You have no right to let
me come near you. If I disgusted you, it isn't my fault that I'm old and haven't a mustache like a bronze candlestick as your husband has. There are things no decent woman would do to a Man. Like a Man hitting a woman in the breast. Don't cry. I can't bear it. Have I broken your heart? I, I didn't know you had one. How could I? I'm a man, ain't I? Oh no, not what I call a man.
There are, there are many unusual things that take place when you're performing in the open air. The famous cat'Socks' who lived at a neighbours which used to come here and used to love the performances and just used to like coming up on stage and would suddenly appear beside the actors and probably sit on the chair beside them. And I remember in the trial scene of Saint Joan when the cat suddenly appeared sitting on the prosecution benches!
And all eyes were on the cat and nobody was getting any laughs. Then they weren't listening to the lines at all! So those, those are the little things that can be rather different at Shaw's Corner.
Thanks for listening to this week's mini episode. I hope you'll join me next time when I'll be exploring the homes of Wordsworth in the lake district. Until then from me, James Grasby. Goodbye.