''Geneva, a Fancied Page of History in Three Acts'' (1938) is a topical play by
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...
. It describes a summit meeting designed to contain the increasingly dangerous behaviour of three dictators, Herr Battler, Signor Bombardone, and General Flanco (parodies of
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
,
Benito Mussolini and
Francisco Franco).
Because of its topicality in the run up to
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, the play was constantly rewritten by Shaw to take account of rapidly changing events. Though initially a success, the play's flippant portrayal of Hitler and
fascism
Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...
have limited revivals in later years.
Plot
At the offices of the "Committee of Intellectual Cooperation" in
Geneva
, neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier
, website = https://www.geneve.ch/
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...
, the only person present is a hopelessly overwhelmed secretary called Miss Begonia Brown. Various people turn up demanding redress of grievances: a Jew who complains of
oppression in Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
; a colonial politician who had been denied the right to take his seat and a South American woman who objects to the politics of assassinations and vendettas. A British vicar and a Russian Bolshevik also complain about the respective influence of their competing ideologies. The vicar promptly dies of shock after realising he has been friendly with a Communist. The Jew says that the major culprits are the fascist dictators Battler, Bombardone and Flanco. He suggests that they should contact the
International Court in
The Hague
The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...
, which the secretary does. A Dutch judge accepts the case, summoning Battler, Bombardone and Flanco to the court.
To everyone's amazement the dictators all obey the summons. They are put on trial, which is broadcast internationally on television. Battler, Bombardone, and Flanco all defend themselves with grandiose speeches. The judge comments, "It turns out that we do not and cannot love one another—that the problem before us is how to establish peace among people who heartily dislike one another, and have very good reasons for doing so: in short, that the human race does not at present consist exclusively or even largely of likeable persons". Sir Orpheus Midlander, the British
Foreign Secretary, threatens Battler that if Germany invades another country, Britain will take military action.
As the situation seems to be escalating, news arrives that the earth has jumped out of its orbit and all humanity is threatened with freezing to death. Political differences no longer seem significant. But now all the leaders have a different plan to deal with the problem—or to ignore it. It is soon discovered that the report was false. Will this moment of shared, albeit illusory, danger help to bring the nations together? It's doubtful. But the play ends on a note of hope: "They came, these fellows. They blustered: they defied us. But they came. They came."
Creation
Shaw's friend and biographer
Archibald Henderson
Archibald Henderson (January 21, 1783 – January 6, 1859) was the longest-serving Commandant of the Marine Corps, serving from 1820 to 1859. His name is learned by all recruits at Marine recruit training (Boot Camp) as the "Grand old man of th ...
says that he had suggested to Shaw that he could write a play about Mussolini, saying "It may be that Shaw was thereby influenced to consider all the totalitarian leaders and dictators brought together into a single play." The play's British ambassador is a composite figure based on British politicians of the day, including the aristocratic
Eric Drummond, 16th Earl of Perth
James Eric Drummond, 7th Earl of Perth, (17 August 1876 – 15 December 1951), was a British politician and diplomat who was the first Secretary-General of the League of Nations (1920–1933).
Quiet and unassuming, he succeeded in building an e ...
and the brothers
Austen Chamberlain
Sir Joseph Austen Chamberlain (16 October 1863 – 16 March 1937) was a British statesman, son of Joseph Chamberlain and older half-brother of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer (twice) and was briefly ...
and
Neville Chamberlain. According to Henderson,
Shaw spent two years working on and revising the play after first drafting it in 1936. An early version was sent to
Lawrence Langner of the
Theatre Guild
The Theatre Guild is a theatrical society founded in New York City in 1918 by Lawrence Langner, Philip Moeller, Helen Westley and Theresa Helburn. Langner's wife, Armina Marshall, then served as a co-director. It evolved out of the work of th ...
in New York. Langner was not impressed, and refused to put on the play. He was especially dismayed by Shaw's apparently sympathetic attitude to the dictators. He wrote, "Your influence has been exactly the opposite of that of the dictators...Yet you seem to justify Fascism with its intolerance, racial hatred, economic slavery, fanning of the war spirit...mainly on the ground that...Dictators are 'supermen', and the supermen 'get things done'." Shaw said he had already rewritten it to adopt as more critical stance: "Musso let me down completely by going anti-Semite on me...you may now put the copy I sent you in the fire as useless."
[Weintraub, Stanley, "GBS and the despots", ''Times Literary Supplement'', 22 August 2011.](_blank)
/ref> As political events unfolded, Shaw had to constantly rewrite the play. According to Michael Holroyd, in the end "Geneva was played and printed in eight different versions".
Productions
It was first performed at the Teatr Polski in Warsaw on 25 July 1938, in a Polish language translation. Its first British production was at the Malvern festival on 1 August 1938. Shaw wrote a pamphlet to accompany the Malvern production. A London production opened on 22 November 1938, with more added scenes. The topicality of the themes, with war looming, attracted audiences and the play ran for 237 performances,[Weintraub, Stanley, "GBS and the despots", ''Times Literary Supplement'', 22 August 2011.](_blank)
/ref> closing in mid-June 1939.
Shaw revised the play again for a performance in New York in January 1940, but the atmosphere had changed with war now a reality. According to Stanley Weintraub
Stanley Weintraub (April 17, 1929 – July 28, 2019) was an American historian and biographer and an expert on George Bernard Shaw.
Early life
Weintraub was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on April 17, 1929. He was the eldest child of Benja ...
the jokey and flippant manner did not work for audiences, "the caricatures were no longer clever – if they ever had been so....it was an immediate flop."
Responses
Beatrice Webb disliked what she heard when Shaw read passages from a draft of ''Geneva'' in 1936, writing "every character depraved in morals and manners and futile in intellect, with here and there a dull dissertation on public affairs". When she saw it on stage, she changed her mind, noting, "the play has come at the best possible occasion: it relieves the terrible tension that we all feel about foreign affairs by laughing at every one concerned."[Tracy C. Davis, ''George Bernard Shaw and the Socialist Theatre'', Praeger, Westport, CT., 1994, pp.140-6.] Homer Woodbridge says that "As a dramatized pamphlet or tract, the piece points in too many directions to be effective", but the caricature of Mussolini is witty and convincing.[Woodbridge, Homer E., ''George Bernard Shaw: Creative Artist'', Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, IL., 1963, p.146.] Both parliamentarian and fascist politics are caricatured, with only the Dutch judge representing reason. However, in line with Shaw's pro-Stalinist views, the Russian Commissar is portrayed without satire.
G. A. Pileki notes that early reviewers took the view that Shaw was far too soft on the dictators, being "overly critical of the British and generally sympathetic toward the dictators", but that after the war stated a production in New York was interpreted as "a British propaganda mission." Examining Shaw's revisions to his drafts of the play Pileki concludes that Shaw intentionally made the dictators' cases more rational in order to create a more balanced version of his typical "Shavian dialectic". In the early version the Jew and Battler have an argument in which the Jew claims to represent an intellectually superior, educated people, while Battler maintains that he wants to eliminate sub-humans, poisonous vermin and Jews. In the final version Battler says he was only trying to remove foreigners from his country, comparing his plans to the White Australia policy
The White Australia policy is a term encapsulating a set of historical policies that aimed to forbid people of non-European ethnic origin, especially Asians (primarily Chinese) and Pacific Islanders, from immigrating to Australia, starting i ...
that was accepted in the British empire.[Pilecki, G.A. ''Shaw’s Geneva'', London: Mouton, 1965, passim.]
Preface
Shaw wrote his preface to the play ten years later in 1946, after World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
was over. He looked back on his portrayal of the failings of both dictators and of parliamentary democracy, reaffirming his often-repeated view that "Civilization's will to live salways defeated by democracy", arguing for a form of technocratic and meritocratic government. He said that Hitler had proved to be "a pseudo-Messiah and madman".
References
External links
*
*
{{George Bernard Shaw
1938 plays
Plays by George Bernard Shaw
Cultural depictions of Adolf Hitler
Works about Adolf Hitler
Plays about Nazi Germany
Cultural depictions of Benito Mussolini
Works about Italian fascism
Works about Francisco Franco
Plays set in Switzerland
Geneva in fiction