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If you can’t appreciate what you’ve got, you’d better get what you can appreciate.
George Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion.
Pygmalion will be a revelation to anyone familiar with My Fair Lady. The issues of class and gender that fascinated Shaw still strike a chord with modern audiences – J. D. Atkinson, British Theatre Guide.
a love story with brusque diffidence and a wealth of humor. - New York Times (1914)
This timeless play is certain to delight contemporary readers. Pygmalion was written by the renown British playwright George Bernard Shaw. The title comes from the Greek mythological figure Pygmalion. In ancient Greek mythology, Pygmalion was a man who fell in love with one of his sculptures which then came to life. The influence of this myth is clear throughout the play.
The play follows the young flower girl Eliza; opening as the social climber Freddy Eynsford-Hill bumps into Eliza in his haste to get a taxi–leading to her dropping her entire day’s flowers. Eliza, and her strong accent, are observed by Henry Higgins a professor of phonetics and his fellow philologist Colonel Pickering. Higgins confidently states to Pickering that he could pass Eliza off as a duchess through giving her elocution lessons. In five hilarious and witty acts the relationships between these four characters unfolds.
First presented on stage to the public in 1913, the play has now been staged across the world. One of Shaw’s most famous plays, it has led to a highly commended film adaptation and was the influence behind the musical ‘My Fair Lady.’
George Bernard Shaw was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1856. This Irish playwright, critic, and political activist is probably best known for his influence on Western theatre through works such as Pygmalion. Shaw became known as one of the leading dramatists of his generation and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925 for his work which is marked by both idealism and humanity, its stimulating satire often being infused with a singular poetic beauty. The word Shavian has entered into the English language as a way of expressing Shaw’s ideas and his methods of communication. He is particularly known for his use of realism and the way he interweaves his political, social and religious ideas throughout his works.
