Major Barbara has been called the most controversial of Shaw's works. His seeming criticism of Christianity and The Salvation Army caused some to accuse him of blasphemy, while others defended what they saw as his realistic presentation of religion.The play first opened on Broadway at the Playhouse Theatre December 9, 1915. There have been four Broadway revivals, 1928 at the Guild Theatre, 1956 at the Martin Beck Theatre and then the Morosco Theatre, 1980 at the Circle in the Square Theatre, and 2001 at the American Airlines Theatre. (Quote from wikipedia.org)About the AuthorGeorge Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 - 2 November 1950) was a world-famous Irish playwright. Born in Dublin, he moved to London at the age of twenty and lived in England for the remainder of his life. Shaw's first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, but he had a bent for drama: during his career he authored more than sixty plays. Nearly all of his writings dealt sternly with prevailing social problems, but are nicely leavened by a vein of comedy to make their stark themes more palatable. He pondered education, marriage, religion, government, health care, and class privilege and found them all defective, but his ire was most aroused by the exploitation of the working class by heartless employers; his writings seldom fail to censure that abuse.An ardent socialist, Shaw wrote many brochures and speeches for the Fabian Society and he became an accomplished orator in the furtherance of its causes, which included gaining equal political rights for men and women, alleviating abuses of

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