George Bernard Shaw

Candida George Bernard Shaw

When George Bernard Shaw's CANDIDA arrived on the American stage, it created what critics termed "Candidamania". A "Christian-Socialist" minister, his younger and beautiful wife, and an even younger love-starved poet-what could go wrong? Since the playwright shared much of his fictional minister's philosophy, one might be tempted to assume a particular moral in this play. Actors and directors, however, have developed their own interpretations. Readers also might be so inclined. Therefore CANDIDA is a large exposition of the doctrine that love should be free, -which is by no means the same thing as free love; that it should be a burden equally borne by both partners in the yoke; that happiness, instead of misery, would result if more women resembled Candida in candour. . . . She proved to (her minister husband) . . . that the hundredth solitary sinner is of more consequence than the ninety-nine reclaimed. - ICONOCLASTS, by James Huneker