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.