250TH ANNIVERSARY
George Bernard Shaw
Widowers' Houses
(1898)
Shaw's first play,
Widowers' Houses, subtitled "an original didactic realistic play," is one of his three "Unpleasant Plays." It deals with capitalism and slum landlords. For background, Shaw drew upon the five years he had spent working as a clerk in a Dublin real estate office.
In his preface Shaw wrote, "I have shown middle-class respectability and younger son gentility fattening on the poverty of the slum, as flies fatten on filth. This is not a pleasant theme."
Opening night, December 9, 1892 at the Royalty Theatre in London was tumultuous with half the house booing, half applauding. In the words of one critic, "There was a great deal of noise and hissing ... and after some time ... Mr. Shaw appeared upon the stage, very pale, and began a speech: 'I hope,' he said,'that the time is coming when a play like this will be impossible.' 'It's impossible now,' from the gallery. 'It's not impossible now, for it's just been performed,' from Shaw."
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