UPCOMING EVENTS
Shaw and the Horns of a Dilemma
Sunday 30 August
A FREE talk
By Dr Phililp Wilson
2.30pm via Zoom​​​​​
Celebrating the Centenary of Shaw's Nobel Prize
The Shaw Society Centenary Events​ and Projects​​​
This is a very special year for our Charity as we celebrate our 85th Birthday and the centenary of Bernard Shaw's Nobel Prize. Although Shaw won the Nobel Prize for literature for 1925, the prize was not announced till 1926.​
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​The Shaw Society has held many events in this special year. In particular we were delighted to hold the inaugural London Shaw Festival at the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith in July. The Festival programme was a mix of events to please Shavians and newcomers to Shaw, with films, talks and two performances of his comedy 'Candida' by the Rumpus Theatre Company. We are delighted that the Shaw Festival London will return to the ICC for 2027.
The play was our annual birthday play at Shaw's Corner - National Trust in Ayot St Lawrence on the 24th and 25th July, and sold out on both nights! Earlier in the year another popular event was the joint performance of Shaw's play 'Dark Lady of the Sonnets' with composer Philip Hagemann's opera based on Shaw's play at the 'Shakespeare in Music Festival' in Stratford upon Avon.
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To round off the summer Alexis Leighton and Helen Tierney are leading our annual 'Shaw Crawl' around Bloomsbury on Bank Holiday Sunday August 30th. This year you will be able to join us online for the talk by Dr Philip Wilson of the University of East Anglia 'Shaw and the Horns of a Dilemma' on Zoom.
There are many other events planned for the rest of the year and for 2027, including the International Shaw Conference at the London School of Economics with the International Shaw Society. Shaw was one of it's four founders and his wife Charlotte was an early patron of the LSE. In the early years of their marriage they lived in a flat above the original LSE site. ​
We hope as many of you as possible will join us as members in this special centenary year to enjoy the performances, play readings, walks, talks and outings organised by the Society. We hope this website allows you to explore Bernard Shaw and gives you a flavour of how The Shaw Society celebrates his life and work.
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For this special year we chose to support a major new project at Shaw's Corner which he bequeathed to the National Trust. Shaw's Corner - National Trust is creating a new permanent exhibition for Shaw's collection of 15,000 photographic prints and negatives. Our Vice-President Dame Siân Phillips helped us to support this important project and we are delighted to report that the project now has the funds to proceed.​
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Thank you to everyone who has helped make the Centenary of Bernard Shaw's Nobel Prize such a memorable year.
Best wishes
Maureen Clark Darby
Chair of The Shaw Society
Nobel Centenary Fundraising Project
George Bernard Shaw Photographic Collection Exhibition - Update
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To celebrate this very special anniversary, The Shaw Society has supported an exciting new project by the National Trust to preserve and display Shaw's extensive photographic collection at his home Shaw's Corner in Ayot St Lawrence in Hertfordshire. The collection is a window into Shaw's work, friendships and travels around the globe. Many of the photographs have not been on public display and the project will preserve the photographs, slides and negatives for future generations. Our Vice-President Dame Siân Phillips recorded a message to invite donations to preserve this unique collection and to create a new permanent exhibition.
We are delighted to announce that due to the generosity of our supporters we have managed to raise the funds needed for this important project and will keep you updated on progress.
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A message from Dame Siân Phillips
Vice-President of The Shaw Society
Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was, in the early Twentieth Century, one of the most famous people in the world. Born and raised in Dublin, he lived his entire adult life from the age of 20 in Britain. He was the first person to be awarded both the Nobel Prize for Literature (in 1925 after writing St Joan, his play about Joan of Arc and for which the Society will be celebrating the centenary this summer) and an Oscar (which he received in 1938 for Best Original Screenplay for adapting his comedy Pygmalion). He and his wife Charlotte were crucial to the development of a string of institutions which are still important today: the Fabian Society, the London School of Economics, and RADA (the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts). He was a socialist, vegetarian and feminist long before those causes were fashionable. Remembered chiefly for his 60 groundbreaking plays, which tackle major political and social topics, including class, poverty and warfare, he remains today a public intellectual with a global reputation.​
The Shaw Society was set up in Shaw’s lifetime on his 85th birthday, 26 July 1941. He endorsed it in his usual irascible style, replying ‘go ahead but don’t bother me about it’ - at the same time taking a great interest in its activities. He thought the Society would last no more than four years. It has been the great pleasure of the members to see him wrong. Now in its 85th year, the Shaw Society today provides opportunities to study and enjoy the works of George Bernard Shaw, or ‘GBS’ as he was widely known, through public performances, readings, films, talks, articles in the press and the Society’s bi-annual journal The Shavian.
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In September 2022, the Shaw Society registered as a charity. It endeavours to keep Shaw’s work alive and on stage; bring his work to wider audiences; raise money to support young actors and develop academic research related to Shaw. We run a wide programme of activities that are open to all members, including a monthly play-reading workshop featuring plays by Shaw and his contemporaries, led by a drama tutor and followed by a convivial light supper. The Society also organises regular literary walks, including the annual ‘Shaw Crawl’, around the places Shaw loved in London, usually pausing for refreshments at a very un-Shavian pub or bar (Shaw himself being tee-total), as well as screenings of plays and films, theatre visits around the UK, talks, presentations and lectures. ​​
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