JAMES GRASBY: 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.

MICHAEL FRIEND: 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. [

GENERIC: Sound of radio drama] I suppose you were going in

seriously for politics someday Jack?

MICHAEL FRIEND: 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. [

GENERIC: 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.

MICHAEL FRIEND: 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. [

GENERIC: 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.

MICHAEL FRIEND: 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.

JAMES GRASBY: 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.