Candida: Ein Mysterium in drei Akten

Candida: Ein Mysterium in drei Akten Bernard Shaw - Candida, eine Komödie des Dramatikers George Bernard Shaw, wurde 1894 geschrieben und erstmals 1898 als Teil seiner Plays Pleasant veröffentlicht. Die Hauptfiguren sind der Geistliche James Morell, seine Frau Candida und ein junger Dichter, Eugene Marchbanks, der versucht, Candidas Zuneigung zu gewinnen. Das Stück hinterfragt viktorianische Vorstellungen von Liebe und Ehe und fragt, was sich eine Frau wirklich von ihrem Mann wünscht. Der Kleriker ist Christsozialist, was Shaw selbst ein Fabian Socialist erlaubt, politische Themen, die zu dieser Zeit aktuell waren, in die Geschichte einzubinden. Shaw versuchte in den 1890er Jahren, eine Londoner Inszenierung des Stücks aufzuführen, scheiterte jedoch, aber es gab zwei kleine Provinzproduktionen. Ende 1903 hatte der Schauspieler Arnold Daly jedoch einen so großen Erfolg mit dem Stück, dass Shaw 1904 schrieb, dass New York "einen Ausbruch von Candidamania" erlebte. Das Royal Court Theatre in London führte das Stück 1904 in sechs Matineen auf. Das gleiche Theater inszenierte von 1904 bis 1907 mehrere andere Stücke von Shaw, darunter weitere Wiederaufnahmen von Candida.

George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright, socialist, and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama. Over the course of his life he wrote more than 60 plays. Nearly all his plays address prevailing social problems, but each also includes a vein of comedy that makes their stark themes more palatable. In these works Shaw examined education, marriage, religion, government, health care, and class privilege.An ardent socialist, Shaw was angered by what he perceived to be the exploitation of the working class. He wrote many brochures and speeches for the Fabian Society. He became an accomplished orator in the furtherance of its causes, which included gaining equal rights for men and women, alleviating abuses of the working class, rescinding private ownership of productive land, and promoting healthy lifestyles. For a short time he was active in local politics, serving on the London County Council.In 1898, Shaw married Charlotte Payne-Townshend, a fellow Fabian, whom he survived. They settled in Ayot St. Lawrence in a house now called Shaw's Corner.He is the only person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize for Literature (1925) and an Oscar (1938). The former for his contributions to literature and the latter for his work on the film "Pygmalion" (adaptation of his play of the same name). Shaw wanted to refuse his Nobel Prize outright, as he had no desire for public honours, but he accepted it at his wife's behest. She considered it a tribute to Ireland. He did reject the monetary award, requesting it be used to finance translation of Swedish books to English.