Passion, Poison, and Petrifaction
Passion, Poison, and Petrifaction is a short comic mock-melodrama by George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950).
Contents
The original text
Subtitled The Fatal Gazogene: a Brief Tragedy for Barns and Booths, the piece was originally written to raise funds for The Actors' Orphanage.
Written in 1905, it was first performed in a booth in Regent's Park, on the 14th July 1905, and the text was first published in the Christmas Annual of the same year. Later printed in the Shaw collection Translations and Tomfooleries (1926).
Often performed over the years across the world, e.g. in London in 1945 and as part of a Shaw Festival at the Arts Theatre in 1951. Usually done as part of a longer programme.
Translations and adaptations
A radio version was broadcast by the BBC in 1926 and an early BBC television service version in 1939. Operatic versions have been done by Mieczysław Weinberg (1975), Bruce Taub (1976) and Philip Hagemann (1988).
Performance history in South Africa
1978: Performed in the Libertas-teater in Stellenbosch under the auspices of USAT on 16 March by students of the University of Stellenbosch. It was a late entry for the USAT Dramafees, directed by Mike Mellor, with Louise Loots, Anita Botha, Steffen Zoutendijk, Andrew Donaldson, Nick Fine, Murray Bridgman, William Hofmeyer and Mike Mellor.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passion,_Poison,_and_Petrifaction
Copy of the 1978 USAT Dramafees programme (held 11-21 March in the Libertas-teater in Stellenbosch).
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