“Shaw
and the Women in His/story”
By
Dorothy Hadfield
Shaw has generally been written into history and the dramatic canon as
the exemplary Fabian feminist, a reputation that is challenged by feminist
interrogations into the politics of theatre historiography. While public
historical narratives—many of which Shaw himself helped write—represent him as
the champion of women’s freedom, a different story emerges in his
correspondence and diaries, which sometimes show him appropriating women’s
literary work while jealously guarding the realm of professional playwriting
from encroachment by women. His private correspondence with actress and
aspiring playwright Janet Achurch demonstrates both the power and the price of
Shaw’s intervention. While Shaw seems to have deliberately encouraged Achurch
to write in a style unfit for the modern stage, his public acknowledgement of
her play in conjunction with his own notorious Mrs. Warren’s Profession
facilitated the otherwise unlikely historical survival of Mrs. Daintree’s
Daughter. Likewise, Shaw’s endowment with what Foucault called “the author
function” preserves and legitimizes Shaw’s personal archive for scholarly
study, thereby facilitating the survival of a huge cast of women whose
contributions have otherwise disappeared from the narrative of theatre history.
Shaw’s correspondence and diaries are an excellent starting point for feminist
theatre historians looking for the women and their contributions to modern
theatre.