'Widowers' House' by Bernard Shaw

Didactic theatre has a long tradition, possibly theatre has always been didactic, but it is most notably sustained by plays such as Widowers' House by Bernard Shaw.  

Shaw was no slouch.  In his ninety-four years he produced more than sixty plays as well as criticism, his prefaces to his plays and pamphlets advocating various social causes as well as pursuing boxing.

Being one of the three Plays Unpleasant, unpleasant because they were not supposed to be entertaining but to raise awareness, Widowers' House is something of a black play of defeated idealism where 'dirty' money is unescapable and all is unclean.

The premise of the play is of a poor but aristocratic doctor, Dr Trench, who is on holiday with his friend, Mr Cokane, when he spies the beautiful Blanche and falls in love with her.  Her father, Mr Sartorius, the widower of the title and self-made businessman, is cautious with the doctor but tells him that if he can get the right letters of recommendation than he may marry her daughter. 

In the second act Trench finds out that Sartorius makes his money by being a slum landlord, brought to attention by Sartorius newly fired rent collector Mr Lickcheese.  Trench is distraught and decides that he cannot marry for such ill-found gains and calls it off.

Being a staunch socialist Shaw was acutely aware of the plight of the poor and how the working man loses out in the capitalist world and which also corrupts the rich.  He used his writing for political purposes to further the socialist cause through as varied a medium as his newspaper articles on opera and sport and through his drama.

Full of argument Widower's House dissects a social problem through individual characters who are fully rounded and not just ideological puppets.  These people are human beings with complexity working in a particular social context.  Take a later scene with Sartorius and his daughter Blanche:

SARTORIUS

My dear: if we made the houses any better the rents would have to be raised so much that the poor people would be unable to pay, and would be thrown homeless on the streets.

BLANCHE

Well, turn them out and get in a respectable class of people.  Why should we have the disgrace of harbouring such wretches?

SARTORIUS

[opening his eyes]

That sounds a little hard on them doesn't it my child?

BLANCHE

Oh I hate the poor.  At least I hate those dirty, drunken, disreputable, people who live like pigs.  If they must be provided for, let other people look after them.  How can you expect any one to think well of us when such things are written about us in that infamous book?

SARTORIUS

[coldly and a little wistfully]

I see I have made a real lady of you, Blanche.

BLANCHE

[defiantly] 

Well?  Are you sorry for that?

SARTORIUS

No, my dear: of course not.  But do you know, Blanche, that my mother was a very poor woman, and that her poverty was not her fault?

BLANCHE

I suppose not: but the people we want to mix with now don't know that.  And it was not my fault; so I don't see why I should be made to suffer for it.

This may be melodrama but it isn't pantomime, there are no straight up villains to hiss and boo at just people who make certain moral choices in how they make their living.  It, also, isn't stuffy and tired, it's has plenty of vigour and panache to make it a lively read and it is constructed very satisfactorily.  

There are plenty of snide remarks but few jokes in this play, which probably make it 'unpleasant', as it doesn't let the audience off the hook.  You feel complicit in how awful society is and for the best of us it spurs us on to make the world a better place rather than feel how hopeless it is.  And there is a hope at the end, it's not full blown tragedy but rather a sordidness.  It is something to make you feel very uncomfortable.

The play is a battle and you have to go in fighting if you want to come out feeling less than defeated.  But Shaw was always known for making people laugh and then making them angry and this is definitely one to make you angry.

In a sense this was written for immediate effect for his public and the fact that it has survived outside it's politics is a testament to Shaw's ability to create durable characters whose outrages and feelings connect with us today, even if the conditions are different, as we are drawn into their lives and exist with them.

That's the first play in my Complete Plays of Bernard Shaw so expect many more of these to come in the future.

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You can even message me with recommendations of books I should cover that I haven't already have (being that the canon is huge), I'd be really interested in what you have to offer me.  In the meantime stay safe and all the best to you