We sat down for an exclusive interview with Murray Rosenthal, who is one of the experts speaking during the Inaugural Shaw Festival.
Celebrating the life and work of George Bernard Shaw this festival runs from 10th to 12th July at the Irish Cultural Centre, London.
Your career has taken you from dentistry and public health to opera, theatre and now Bernard Shaw; looking back, do you see a common thread connecting all those worlds?
My father and grandfather were dentists so I wanted to follow the family tradition as I loved science. As a child, I developed a love for movies and music, first musical theatre and then classical music as I took piano lessons for three years. At this early age, I travelled on two tracks, performing arts and science, loving both. When my public health career wound down, I joined a non-profit opera organization, Opera Index, and met the producer Elizabeth Ireland McCann through Philip Hagemann. Phil and I started investing with Liz and my theatre career began. The bottom line is that there were always two threads in my life with the performing arts thread continuing into my dotage years. Now, most of my activities are here in London.
Having spent decades producing theatre and championing new voices, what is it about Shaw that continues to feel fresh and relevant to modern audiences?
I found Shaw when I was young seeing the movie of Androcles and the Lion at age 12. The final scene moved me so as a redemption for all the good deeds done. This still works powerfully today. Years later as I started seeing more of his plays, so many of the characters and situations seemed relevant with an infusion of wit to lighten the message. Mrs Warren’s Profession leads the list for me with its presentation of women’s roles. As a veteran of the Vietnam War, Arms and the Man mocks war (and capitalism) so beautifully. Major Barbara covers the growing inequities in our societies although Barbara gives up and joins her father. St Joan gives audiences a full characterization of Joan with a brilliant epilogue regarding how societies treat those who are reformers of society.
Your lecture explores Shaw’s views on feminism; which of his female characters do you think would most surprise audiences who assume his work belongs firmly to another era?
In Mrs Warren’s Profession, Kitty Warren’s use of prostitution as a means to become rich would seem to belong to another era. However, her daughter’s drive to make it in a business world is so relevant today. She is truly the independent woman who will not take her mother’s riches. Frank, the man who pursues her, is a paradigm of today’s so many drifting young men who have no drive. Ann Whitefield in Man and Superman is a totally independent woman determined to marry Jack Tanner and traps him in Spain. This is relevant today with so many women setting aside marriage for a career In their twenties and early thirties and then finding a husband so that they can have a family along with a career. Lady Magnesia FitzTollmache in Passion, Poison and Petrifaction is a powerhouse in her need for both romance, i.e., sex, and companionship/domesticity. Her speech on Love Has Two Faces sums up relationships brilliantly.
As Vice-Chair of The Shaw Society, what do you think Shaw himself would make of a festival celebrating his legacy a century after receiving the Nobel Prize?
I think that he would be embarrassed. It was noted that he did not approve of a society devoted to “hero worship”. He was persuaded to have it established with the statement “Go ahead but don’t bother me about it.” However, I read that he did follow it.
You’ve worked on more than 150 productions and won both Tony and Olivier Awards; where does your passion for Shaw sit alongside your love of musical theatre and opera?
I love musical theatre, opera and plays. To further elucidate this, I love GOOD plays and musical theatre and opera. Shaw has written many good plays and some brilliant. His use of wit in serious matters allows me to laugh at the folly and foolishness of serious social and economic issues that is less seen in the brilliant plays of his era by Ibsen and Chekhov. Still, the power and beauty of great music is glorious. A year ago I saw a brilliant production of Strauss’s Salome at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and I walked out floating. I need both and Shaw fits the bill for me.
Shaw was famous for challenging accepted ideas—if there is one misconception about him you would most like festival audiences to leave behind, what would it be?
His attitude towards women. Shaw created women who have independence and drive social progress away from traditional gender roles. All you need to do is check out Mrs Warren’s Profession, Major Barbara, Man and Superman, Pygmalion and more and you see the strength and drive of women.