Pygmalion (play) Pygmalion (play) Pygmalion is a play by George Bernard Shaw, named after a Greek mythological figure. It was first presented on stage to the public in 1913. In ancient Greek mythology, Pygmalion fell in love with one of his sculptures, which then came to life. The general idea of that myth was a popular subject for Victorian era English playwrights, including one of Shaw's influences, W. S. Gilbert, who wrote a successful play based on the story called "Pygmalion and Galatea" that was first presented in 1871. Shaw would also have been familiar with the burlesque version, "Galatea, or Pygmalion
Harlequin Cock Robin and Jenny Wren our degenerate stage." Gilbert's early pantomimes, burlesques and farces, full of awful puns and broad humour, show signs of the satire that would later be a defining part of his work. These works gave way, after 1869, to plays containing original plots and fewer puns. These included his "fairy comedies", such as "The Palace of Truth" (1870) and "Pygmalion and Galatea" (1871), and his German Reed Entertainments, which led to the famous Gilbert and Sullivan operas. Other Personalities by Legions of Useful Utilities and Superior Supernumeraries. Members of the Vokes family danced in the piece. "Note: the parenthetical descriptions of