The Shaw Festival
and George Bernard Shaw

The Shaw Festival in Niagara on the Lake Ontario pays tribute to a famous Irish playwright, but it also showcases other theatrical talent. Find out who.

George Bernard Shaw (1856 –1950) was an Irish playwright, born in Dublin, who during his heyday was a household name. Even today he's regarded as one of the wittiest playwrights in the English language. During his long career, he wrote 63 plays and many novels and short stories, in addition to being a journalist and social activist. How he managed to get all this work done and remain as funny and healthy as he was (he lived to the incredible age of 96!) is beyond me.

Shaw had a reputation as a cynic (see the quote above) and it's true that he was quite liberal with his barbs and attacks on any ideas and people he saw as flawed (hypocrites, slum landlords, the idle rich, war profiteers, academic snobs, male chauvinists). One of his most famous plays was Pygmalion, which was adapted and made into a movie called My Fair Lady. Other popular works included Major Barbara, Arms and the Man, Mrs. Warren's Profession and Saint Joan.

Other playwrights produced at the Festival

Each year the Festival mounts a couple of plays by Shaw and a handful of works by other writers as well.

Noel Coward is often on the menu as his light witty works make for great summer theatre.

The Festival occasionally produces newer works as well, including pieces by Canadian playwrights. Recently they mounted a wonderful production of Michel Tremblay's Albertine in Five Times.

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