Shaw believed that theatre audiences of the 1890s deserved more than the hollow spectacle and sham he saw displayed on the London stage. In these three plays of ideas, Shaw employed traditional dramatic forms, Victorian melodrama, the history play and the adventure story, to turn received wisdom ups...

Shaw believed that theatre audiences of the 1890s deserved more than the hollow spectacle and sham he saw displayed on the London stage. In these three plays of ideas, Shaw employed traditional dramatic forms, Victorian melodrama, the history play and the adventure story, to turn received wisdom upside down.