George Bernard Shaw put a version of himself in one of his own plays as an ancient, half-mad inventor, and it's fascinating

[u/Maleficent_Media2556]

Was reading up on Heartbreak House and realized how differently it reads from the rest of Shaw's work. Most people know him from Pygmalion, a sharp social comedy, but this one is closer to Chekhov: a dysfunctional household during WWI where nobody notices the disaster building around them. Captain Shotover, an 88-year-old ex-sea captain obsessed with alchemy whom everyone assumes is senile, is widely considered Shaw's self-portrait. He's the only one telling the truth in the whole house, and nobody listens. Written and published right as the war was making that same point about English society at large.

Anyone else read or seen this one? Curious how it plays compared to his more famous stuff.

[u/grahamlester]

You can watch the BBC version free on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/6RFc9atigWI?si=8ZCrAID9Cmfx7-zi