George Bernard Shaw throughout the Second World War, starring such actors as Edith Evans, John Gielgud, Deborah Kerr and Robert Donat. In 1944 nine Shaw plays were staged in London, including "Arms and the Man" with Ralph Richardson, Laurence Olivier, Sybil Thorndike and Margaret Leighton in the leading roles. Two touring companies took his plays all round Britain. The revival in his popularity did not tempt Shaw to write a new play, and he concentrated on prolific journalism. A second Shaw film produced by Pascal, "Major Barbara" (1941), was less successful both artistically and commercially than "Pygmalion", partly because of Pascal's insistence on
The Best of Friends (play) The Best of Friends (play) The Best of Friends is an epistolary play by Hugh Whitemore about the friendship of George Bernard Shaw, Sydney Cockerell, and Dame Laurentia McLachlan, based in the lengthy correspondence that passed between them for over 25 years. It was inspired by "The Nun, the Infidel, and the Superman" by Dame Felicitas Corrigan, a Benedictine nun at Stanbrook Abbey in the U.K. George Bernard Shaw is considered one of the most important English-language playwrights of the 20th century. Sydney Cockerell was the curator of the Fitzwilliam Museum and was well-connected to many intellectuals of his time.