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
Fanny's First Play audacious plays of all his attack on 'the mean things which men have to do to keep up their respectability'." A letter, purportedly written by Flawner Bannal "the critic of "The Matutinal Meddler"" was published in "The Play Pictorial" protesting that the supposedly anonymous play was being marketed with the quotation "'Bernard Shaw...at his best.'--The Daily Graphic." Fanny's First Play Fanny's First Play is a 1911 play by George Bernard Shaw. It was first performed as an anonymous piece, the authorship of which was to be kept secret. However, critics soon recognised it as the work of Shaw. It opened