Editing Man and Superman

{{Short description|1903 four-act drama by George Bernard Shaw}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Use British English|date=April 2025}}
{{Infobox play
| name       =Man and Superman
| image      =File:Man and Superman Royal Court Theatre 1906.jpg
|image_size = 
| caption    = [[Harley Granville Barker]] as John Tanner and [[Lillah McCarthy]] as Anne Whitefield in first production, Royal Court Theatre, London, 1905
| writer     = [[George Bernard Shaw]]
| genre      = Satirical comedy
| premiere   = 23 May 1905
| place      = [[Stage Society]], [[Royal Court Theatre]], London
| orig_lang  = English
}}
'''''Man and Superman''''' is a four-act [[drama]] written by [[George Bernard Shaw]] in 1903, in response to a call for Shaw to write a play based on the [[Don Juan]] theme.<ref>In his introduction Shaw acknowledges the insistent prompting given by drama critic [[Arthur Bingham Walkley]]—{{cite book|last1=Bertolini|first1=John A.|title=The playwrighting self of Bernard Shaw|date=1991|publisher=Southern Illinois University Press|location=Carbondale|isbn=0809316501|pages=[https://archive.org/details/playwrightingsel00bert/page/29 29–31]|url=https://archive.org/details/playwrightingsel00bert/page/29}}</ref> ''Man and Superman'' opened at the [[Royal Court Theatre]] in London on 21 May 1905 as a four-act play produced by the [[Stage Society]], and then by [[John Eugene Vedrenne]] and [[Harley Granville-Barker]] on 23 May, without Act III ("Don Juan in Hell").<ref name="theatre">{{cite book|last=Evans|first=T.F.|title=Modern Dramatists: George Bernard Shaw (Critical Heritage)|year=1999|publisher=Routledge|location=New York|isbn=0-415-15953-9|pages=98|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fCehXvIxHb8C&q=23+May+1905+%22man+and+superman%22&pg=PA98}}</ref> A part of the third act (Scene 2), was performed when the drama was staged on 4 June 1907 at the Royal Court. The play was not performed in its entirety until 1915, when the Travelling Repertory Company played it at the [[Royal Lyceum Theatre|Lyceum Theatre]], [[Edinburgh]].

== Summary ==
Mr. Whitefield has recently died, and his [[will and testament|will]] indicates that his daughter Ann should be left in the care of two men, Roebuck Ramsden and John Tanner. Ramsden, a venerable old man, distrusts John Tanner, an eloquent youth with revolutionary ideas, whom Shaw's stage directions describe as "prodigiously fluent of speech, restless, excitable (mark the snorting nostril and the restless blue eye, just the thirty-secondth of an inch too wide open), possibly a little mad".<ref name=John>{{cite web|url=http://www.bartleby.com/157/1.html|title=Act I. Shaw, Bernard. 1903. Man and Superman|website=www.bartleby.com|access-date=8 April 2018}}</ref> In spite of what Ramsden says, Ann accepts Tanner as her [[Legal guardian|guardian]], though Tanner does not want the position at all. She also challenges Tanner's revolutionary beliefs with her own ideas. Despite Tanner's professed dedication to [[anarchy]], he is unable to disarm Ann's charm, and she ultimately persuades him to marry her,<ref name=ann>[http://freehelpstoenglishliterature.blogspot.com/2008/07/character-of-ann-whitefield-in-shaws.html#!/2008/07/character-of-ann-whitefield-in-shaws.html "Character of Ann Whitefield in Shaw's Man and Superman." ''Studying English Literature.'' 4 July 2008.]</ref> choosing him over her more persistent suitor, a young man, Tanner's friend, named Octavius Robinson.

== List of characters ==
* '''Hector Malone, Sr.''', an elderly gentleman who has worked hard throughout his life to attain a high social status in which he now takes pride.
* '''Ann Whitefield''', a young woman, graceful, somewhat enigmatic. She corresponds to the character Doña Ana in the [[Don Juan]] myth (in Act III, Shaw's stage direction refers to Doña Ana de Ulloa as "so handsome that in the radiance into which her dull yellow halo has suddenly lightened one might almost mistake her for Ann Whitefield").
* '''Henry Straker''', [[chauffeur]] with a [[cockney]] accent (representing Leporello from [[Don Giovanni|the Mozart opera]]).<ref name=dedication/>
* '''John Tanner''', also called "Jack Tanner", a well-educated, well-spoken man who takes everything seriously, including himself; a "political firebrand and confirmed bachelor."<ref name=blackbird>[http://www.lipscomb.edu/news/Event/Detail/4044 "Blackbird Theater: Man and Superman"]. Lipscomb University.</ref> Allegedly the descendant of [[Don Juan]], as well as the modern representation of the Don Juan character (in Act III, Shaw notes Don Juan's resemblance to Tanner: "Besides, in the brief lifting of his face, now hidden by his hat brim, there was a curious suggestion of Tanner. A more critical, fastidious, handsome face, paler and colder, without Tanner's impetuous credulity and enthusiasm, and without a touch of his modern plutocratic vulgarity, but still a resemblance, even an identity"). The very name "John Tanner" is an [[anglicisation]] of the Spanish name "Juan Tenorio", which is the full name of Don Juan.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Heller|first1=Agnes|editor1-last=Goehr|editor1-first=Lydia|editor2-last=Herwitz|editor2-first=Daniel|title=The Don Giovanni moment: essays on the legacy of an opera|date=2008|publisher=Columbia University Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0231137553|page=182}}</ref> 
* '''Violet Robinson''', sister of Octavius Robinson. She has been secretly married to Hector Malone, Jr.
* '''Mrs. Whitefield''', mother of Ann, and widow of the late Mr. Whitefield.
* '''Susan Ramsden''', the [[spinster]] sister of Roebuck Ramsden.
* '''Hector Malone, Jr.''', an American gentleman who is secretly married to Violet Robinson.
* '''Octavius Robinson''', an amiable young man who is in love with Ann Whitefield. Brother to Violet Robinson. He represents "Don Ottavio" from the Don Juan myth.
* '''Roebuck Ramsden''', an aging civil reformer who was friend to the late Mr. Whitefield. He corresponds to the statue in the Don Juan myth, who is in turn the representation of the spirit of Don Gonzalo, the father of Doña Ana (in Act III, Shaw writes of The Statue, "His voice, save for a much more distinguished intonation, is so like the voice of Roebuck Ramsden").
* '''Mendoza''', an [[anarchist]] who collaborates with Tanner. Mendoza is the "President of the League of the Sierra," a self-described [[brigand]] and a [[Jew]]. He corresponds to Shaw's conception of the [[Devil]] as he would be portrayed in the Don Juan myth (Shaw writes of "The Devil" in Act III: "A scarlet halo begins to glow; and into it the Devil rises, very [[Mephistophelean]], and not at all unlike Mendoza, though not so interesting").

== Interpretation and performances ==

=== Don Juan Play ===
The long third act of the play, which shows Don Juan himself having a conversation with several characters in [[Hell]], is often cut. Charles A. Berst observes of Act III:

<blockquote>Paradoxically, the act is both extraneous and central to the drama which surrounds it. It can be dispensed with, and usually is, on grounds that it is just too long to include in an already full-length play. More significantly, it is in some aspects a digression, operates in a different mode from the rest of the material, delays the immediate well-made story line, and much of its subject matter is already implicit in the rest of the play. The play performs well without it.<ref name=extra>{{cite book|last=Berst|first=Charles A.|title=Bernard Shaw and the Art of Drama|url=https://archive.org/details/bernardshawartof0000bers|url-access=registration|year=1973|publisher=University of Illinois Press|location=Chicago|isbn=0-252-00258-X|page=[https://archive.org/details/bernardshawartof0000bers/page/126 126]}}</ref></blockquote>

''Don Juan in Hell'' consists of a philosophical debate between Don Juan (played by the same actor who plays Jack Tanner), and the [[Devil]], with Doña Ana (Ann) and the [[Statue]] of Don Gonzalo, Ana's father (Roebuck Ramsden) looking on. This third act is often performed separately as a play in its own right, most famously during the 1950s in a stage production featuring [[Charles Boyer]] as Don Juan, [[Charles Laughton]] as the Devil, [[Cedric Hardwicke]] as the Commander and [[Agnes Moorehead]] as Doña Ana.<ref>Shaw, Bernard, ''Don Juan in Hell'', New York: Dodd, Mead & Company (no date given, except renewal copyright 1931) (with photographs from the stage production).</ref> This version was also released as a [[spoken word album]] on [[LP record|LP]], but is yet to appear on CD. In 1974–1975, [[Kurt Kasznar]], [[Myrna Loy]], [[Edward Mulhare]] and [[Ricardo Montalbán]] toured nationwide in [[John Houseman]]'s reprise of the production, playing 158 cities in six months.<ref>Loy, Myrna, and James Kotsilibas-Davis, ''Being and Becoming''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1987; {{ISBN|0-394-55593-7}}  pp. 339–340</ref>

=== Ideas ===
Although ''Man and Superman'' can be performed as a light [[comedy of manners]], Shaw intended the drama to be something much deeper, as suggested by the title, which comes from [[Friedrich Nietzsche]]'s philosophical ideas about the "[[Übermensch]]" (although Shaw distances himself from Nietzsche by placing the philosopher at the very end of a long list of influences).<ref name=dedication/><ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Pasley|editor1-first=Malcolm|editor-link=Malcolm Pasley|title=Nietzsche: Imagery and Thought: A Collection of Essays|date=1978|publisher=University of California Press|location=Oakland, California|isbn=978-0-520-03577-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/nietzscheimagery00pasl/page/246 246]|url=https://archive.org/details/nietzscheimagery00pasl/page/246}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Billington|first1=Michael|title=Man and Superman review – Ralph Fiennes masters Shaw's contrary male|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/feb/26/man-and-superman-review-ralph-fiennes-national-theatre|work=The Guardian|date=26 February 2015|quote=Shaw…holding the mirror up to Nietzsche}}</ref> As Shaw notes in his "Epistle Dedicatory" (dedication to theatre critic [[Arthur Bingham Walkley]]) he wrote the play as "a pretext for a propaganda of our own views of life".<ref name=dedication>''Man and Superman'' dedication</ref> The plot centres on John Tanner, author of "The Revolutionist's Handbook and Pocket Companion", which is published with the play as a 58-page appendix. Both in the play and in the "Handbook" Shaw takes Nietzsche's theme that mankind is evolving, through [[natural selection]], towards "superman" and develops the argument to suggest that the prime mover in selection is the woman: Ann Whitefield makes persistent efforts to entice Tanner to marry her yet he remains a bachelor. As Shaw himself puts it: "Don Juan had changed his sex and become Dona Juana, breaking out of the Doll's House and asserting herself as an individual".<ref name=dedication/><ref>{{cite book|last1=Singh|first1=Devendra Kumar|title=The idea of the superman in the plays of G. B. Shaw|date=1994|publisher=Atlantic Publishers and Distributors|location=New Delhi|isbn=8171563902|pages=18–21}}</ref> This is an explicit, intended reversal of [[Tirso de Molina]]'s play ''[[The Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest]]'', more widely known as the source of [[Lorenzo Da Ponte|Da Ponte's]] ''[[Don Giovanni]]''; here Ann, representing Doña Ana, is the predator – "Don Juan is the quarry instead of the huntsman," as Shaw notes.<ref name=dedication/><ref>{{cite book|last1=Grey|first1=Thomas S|editor1-last=Goehr|editor1-first=Lydia|editor2-last=Herwitz|editor2-first=Daniel|title=The Don Giovanni moment : essays on the legacy of an opera|date=2008|publisher=Columbia University Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0231137553|page=100}}</ref>

Ann is referred to as "the [[Energy (esotericism)|Life Force]]" and represents Shaw's view that in every culture, it is the women who force the men to marry them rather than the men who take the initiative.<ref name=dedication/> Sally Peters Vogt proposes: "Thematically, the fluid Don Juan myth becomes a favorable milieu for [[George Bernard Shaw#CITEREFReligion: Creative Revolutionary: Time, December 1950|Creative Evolution]]", and that "the legend&nbsp;... becomes in ''Man and Superman'' the vehicle through which Shaw communicates his cosmic philosophy".<ref name=creative>Vogt, Sally Peters. "Ann and Superman: Type and Archetype". In ''Modern Critical Views: George Bernard Shaw'', edited with an introduction by [[Harold Bloom]]. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. p. 221.</ref>

=== Productions ===
In 1905, the [[Hudson Theatre]] produced the play for 192 performances. Produced by [[Charles Dillingham]]. 

In 1917, the [[Abbey Theatre]] produced the play for 7 performances. The production was directed by J. Augustus Keogh.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.abbeytheatre.ie/archives/production_detail/942|title=Man and Superman 1917 (Abbey) {{!}} Abbey Archives {{!}} Abbey Theatre – Amharclann na Mainistreach|website=Abbey Theatre|language=en|access-date=2020-01-01}}</ref>

In 1925, the Abbey Theatre produced the play for seven performances. The production was directed by Michael J. Dolan.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.abbeytheatre.ie/archives/production_detail/3006|title=Man and Superman 1925 (Abbey) {{!}} Abbey Archives {{!}} Abbey Theatre – Amharclann na Mainistreach|website=Abbey Theatre|language=en|access-date=2020-01-01}}</ref>

In 1927, the Abbey Theatre produced the play for seven performances. The production was directed by [[Lennox Robinson]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.abbeytheatre.ie/archives/production_detail/3118|title=Man and Superman 1927 (Abbey) {{!}} Abbey Archives {{!}} Abbey Theatre – Amharclann na Mainistreach|website=Abbey Theatre|language=en|access-date=2020-01-01}}</ref>

In 1946, the [[BBC Third Programme]] broadcast the entire play over the wireless for the first time. The production was directed by Peter Watts. It starred John Garside, [[Leonard Sachs]], [[Sebastian Shaw (actor)|Sebastian Shaw]], [[Grizelda Hervey]] amongst others.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=1973|title=Sebastian Shaw, Griselda Hervey, and Esme Percy in the first broadcast performance in its entirety of Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman|journal=Radio Times|volume=50th Anniversary Souvenir Edition|pages=74}}</ref>

In 1968, the BBC adapted the play for television as a ''[[Play of the Month#Man and Superman|Play of the Month]]''. Only a short sequence from this play still exists.

In 1977–1978, the [[Royal Shakespeare Company|RSC]] produced the play at London's [[Savoy Theatre]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://theatricalia.com/play/aq/man-and-superman/production/b2k|title=Production of Man and Superman – Theatricalia|website=theatricalia.com|access-date=8 April 2018}}</ref>

In 1981, London's [[Royal National Theatre|National Theatre]] staged a production, with the "Don Juan in Hell" act included, directed by [[Christopher Morahan]] and starring [[Daniel Massey (actor)|Daniel Massey]] as Jack Tanner and [[Penelope Wilton]] as Ann Whitefield.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://theatricalia.com/play/aq/man-and-superman/production/pna|title=Production of Man and Superman – Theatricalia|website=theatricalia.com|access-date=June 29, 2020}}</ref>

In 1982, director [[David Wheeler (stage director)|David Wheeler]] staged a production at the [[Charles Playhouse]] in Boston, starring [[Richard Jordan]] and [[Diane Salinger]].  During rehearsals, the play was gradually whittled down to a three-hour length, but the "Don Juan in Hell" sequence survived intact.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Clay |first1=Carolyn |title=The spouse trap |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_boston-phoenix_1982-01-26_11_4/page/n60/mode/1up |access-date=9 July 2024 |work=The Boston Phoenix |date=26 January 1982}}</ref>

In 1982, a television version with [[Peter O'Toole]] in the starring role and [[Barry Morse]] as The Devil was first broadcast in the United Kingdom.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0121516/|title=Man and Superman|date=10 October 1982|access-date=8 April 2018|via=www.imdb.com}}</ref>

In 1990, [[South Coast Repertory]] in [[Costa Mesa, California]] staged a production, with the "Don Juan in Hell" act included, directed by Martin Benson and starring [[John de Lancie]] as Jack Tanner and his wife Marnie Mosiman as Ann Whitefield.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-09-04-ca-638-story.html|title=THEATER : South Coast Rep Takes on 'Man and Superman' : * the play, Shaw's longest and most ambitious, is rarely staged whole. But director Martin Benson finds the idea of staging only one part "unthinkable." |website=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=4 September 1990 }}</ref>

In 1996, to celebrate [[BBC Radio 3]]'s 50th Anniversary, [[Peter Hall (director)|Sir Peter Hall]] directed an audio production with [[Ralph Fiennes]] as Jack Tanner, [[Judi Dench]] as Mrs. Whitefield, [[John Wood (English actor)|John Wood]] as Mendoza, [[Juliet Stevenson]] as Ann Whitefield, [[Nicholas Le Prevost]] as Octavius Robinson and [[Jack Davenport]] as Hector Malone.

In 2012, the [[Irish Repertory Theatre]] and Gingold Theatrical Group presented a revival directed and adapted by [[David Staller]] and starring [[Max Gordon Moore]] as Jack Tanner.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://irishrep.org/show/2011-2012-season/man-and-superman/|title=Man and Superman – Irish Repertory Theatre|website=irishrep.org|access-date=8 April 2018}}</ref>

In 2015, London's [[Royal National Theatre|National Theatre]] staged a production, with the "Don Juan in Hell" act included, directed by [[Simon Godwin]] and starring [[Ralph Fiennes]] as Jack Tanner and [[Indira Varma]] as Ann Whitefield.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Clapp|first1=Susannah|author-link=Susannah Clapp |title=Man and Superman review – Ralph Fiennes towers as Shaw's Don Juan|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/mar/01/man-and-superman-lyttelton-observer-review-ralph-fiennes|access-date=7 May 2015|work=[[The Observer]]|date=1 March 2015}}</ref>

In 2019, Canada's [[Shaw Festival]] staged the full production with [[Martha Burns]] as Mendoza/The Devil, Gray Powell as Jack Tanner and [[Sara Topham]] as Ann.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.shawfest.com/playbill/man-and-superman/|title=Shaw Festival – Man and Superman|work=Shaw Festival Theatre |access-date=September 14, 2019}}</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist|30em}}

== External links ==
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Wikisource|Man and Superman|''Man and Superman''}}
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/george-bernard-shaw/man-and-superman}}
* [https://archive.org/details/Man_and_Superman ''Man and Superman''], an audio rendition of the play.
* [https://archive.org/details/mansupermancomed00shawrich ''Man and Superman''], digitized copy of the first edition from [[Internet Archive]].
* {{ibdb show|5798}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160303222857/http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/stage2/produce/mansu/th-mansu.html Review, photos and other information]
* [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3328 Read online at Project Gutenberg]
* "[https://archive.org/details/manandsupermana02shawgoog/page/n47 <!-- pg=177 --> The Revolutionist's Handbook and Pocket Companion]", an appendix to ''Man and Superman'' (page images)
* "[https://archive.org/details/otr_donjuaninhell  Old Time Radio]".  MP3 downloads of 1950 performance.

{{Don Juan}}
{{George Bernard Shaw}}

[[Category:1903 plays]]
[[Category:Plays by George Bernard Shaw]]
[[Category:Fiction about the Devil]]
[[Category:Plays based on the Don Juan legend]]