Passion, Poison, and Petrifaction

Passion, Poison, and Petrifaction is a short comic mock-melodrama by George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950).

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, usuiually as part of a longer programme.

Translations and adaptations

In 1926 the BBC broadcast a radio version and in 1939 the early BBC television service broadcast a televised version.

Performance history in South Africa

1978: Performed under the auspices of USAT as a late entry for the USAT Dramafees on 16 March by students of the University of Stellenbosch. Directed by Mike Mellor, with Louie 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)

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