Customer Reviews

The Shaw Collection (Pygmalion / The Millionairess / Arms and the Man / The Devil's Disciple / Mrs. Warren's Profession / Heartbreak House)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

With the 150th anniversary of George Bernard Shaw's birth fast approaching (July 26), BBC Warner celebrates the Irish playwright by collecting together ten of his most famous and representative plays, produced by the BBC during the 1970's and 80's with some of the finest British actors of the age, and making them available on six DVDs which also feature documentaries on his life and works. With a total run time of over 11 hours, this collection also represents an excellent bargain at $7 per disc or approximately $3.76 per hour. Where else can you find entertainment at this level of writing, acting, directing, and producing for even twice the price?

The only caveat may be the lack of a live theatre audience. I'm assuming most people watching these DVDs are alive, but will probably not watch them in a theatre with others. The absence of this live theatre audience, especially one schooled in the particular genres popular to theatregoers of Shaw's time, may prove somewhat alienating for some, especially as the dialogue and plot recall a more literary era with social conventions that are no longer conventional. We still produce Shaw, however, because his irony, wit and verbal agility were never ends unto themselves, even if they sweetened his less-palatable moral truths. Shaw the playwright was never far removed from Shaw the polemicist, and we would honor him best on this anniversary by remembering this.

I love - love - love this collection. Most of these 6 plays contain "Bonus Plays" - including the play ANDROCLES AND THE LION which is very dear to my heart. Further, there are Bonus Programs included. If you are a Shaw fan at all - this set is a MUST. You won't be disappointed! Well done!

Bernard Shaw in my mind is the greatest playwright we've ever had. I prefer him even to Shakespeare (but, shoot, we can have 'em both, so why quibble?). This collection offers a simply great Devil's Disciple and Arms and the Man plus a Heartbreak House to die for. Mrs. Warren's Profession is good, and I have not yet seen The Millionairess or Pygmalion, but I imagine that they, too, are quite up to snuff. If you love Shaw, this is a must for your library. And you'll want your kids and theirs to share it, too. These plays can be watched again and again without tarnishing their greatness.

All-star productions rarely seen in this country of some of Shaw's best plays: worth watching again and again.

If you have any interest in Bernard Shaw this is a must package.
The plays presented here are well acted and directed. As a collection they present a wonderful overview of Shaw's developement as a playwright and thinker. Although not a bomb in hand revolutionary Shaws was presenter of words and ideas. Thesew presenments help to make him the father of the modern English drama. These plays are little gems filled with wit, insight and hold up quit well on this age of shock for shock sake.

These are movies with multiple camera angles and lush sets. The people speak with ordinary voices, not like those in a stage production.

There are twelve separate programs on the six DVDs. I am giving the five star because two of them are first rate, Pygmalion and The Millionairess. They stand the test of time unlike many other of his plays that satirize situations of 100+ years ago and no longer exist today. The others are from so-so to terrible. Shaw gets poorer as his story goes back in time and to other countries.

I've just watched this whole set, and really (REALLY) enjoyed some of these, and could have done without others. Some of these are gems - Maggie Smith really chews up the scenery in "The Millionaress" and Penelope Wilton is great in "Mrs. Warren's Profession." Lyn Redgrave is charming as Eliza Doolittle, Simon Callow is riveting in "A Man of Destiny" and the dramatization of "The Portrait of Dorian Gray" is powerfully homoerotic, considering it was done in 1976! I also found Helena Bonham Carter fascinating in "Arms and the Man" and was interested to see "The Devils' Disciple," a play I'd never heard of, set in colonial New Hampshire.

There are a couple stinkers, "Heartbreak House," in particular. Instead of dialog, we get a two-hour series of pronouncements. Shaw is showing off, and so are the actors - it's like going back in time to the Old Vic, what with the rolled r's and clunky "outdoor" scenery. The same can be said for "The Apple Cart." Yuck. Androcles and the Lion is also pretty painful.

These are all evocative of those old Masterpiece Theaters, and it's fun to identify actors you've seen in other shows and movies. There's never been a shortage of really brilliant talent in England. Too bad the production values are so iffy; film for outdoors shots, videotape for inside shots - so bad that when they light a match the camera doesn't know what to do - like an old kinescope. But if you can overlook the thump-thump of wood whenever people are walking on "stone" or "grass" and focus on the wonderful lines and nuanced performances, you'll really enjoy this set!The Shaw Collection (Pygmalion / The Millionairess / Arms and the Man / The Devil's Disciple / Mrs. Warren's Profession / Heartbreak House)

Though I haven't as yet had the opportunity to watch all the dramas included in this collection I feel I need have no hesitation about giving it the highest rating. What I *have* seen so far has been great, and it alone would be worth the cost of this set. 'The Devil's Disciple,' 'Andronicus and the Lion,' 'Arms and the Man,' and 'Pygmalion' I have already watched twice. I was a novice to Shaw's dramatic art (still am, I suppose), and I've been quite thrilled by it. 'The Devil's Disciple' was one of the best plays I've ever seen. I had no idea Shaw could be that dramatic.

It seems redundant to offer any comments on the plays themselves. Shaw's reputation is obviously secure, and those who do not quite fancy his rather intellectual kind of plot and dialogue will hopefully know this already and stay away. It does however seem that the productions in this collection are all of stellar quality. The acting is very good, and the sets are traditional. It's like you're given Shaw pure, and the virtuosity of the directors is manifest only in the sense that you just don't think about them--nobody is trying to impose themselves between the work and the audience.

I suppose some reviewers have a specific sense of how a play, or a Bernard Shaw play, should be presented. But if you wish to compare these plays, not just with theatrical presentations, but with quality entertainment in general, there can be no better way to spend your time and money. Myself, I don't bother with TV, and I manage to like about one current movie per year. I have a broad appreciation of quality movies; I deeply appreciate Aeschylus, Shakespeare, Milton, Keats, Robert Smith, etc.; and I have found nothing more delightful than these presentations of Arms and the Man, The Millionairess, The Devil's Disciple, Pygmalion, and You Never Can Tell - quite enough to rate the whole collection a five-star must-have, for anyone but perhaps those with the most specialized theatrical interest.

I love Shaw's plays, but with a few exceptions they don't translate well to the screen. If you're interested in Shaw's ideas and the plays themselves, then you will be quite pleased. If you are looking for a greater sense of place and reality, as most people do with today's movies, you might feel something lacking.