In 1945, Shaw returned to the Embassy Theatre to direct Fyodor Dostoevsky's "The Gambler". Significant theatre roles that decade included Hercules in "The Thracian Horses" at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith in 1946, Mr. Hern-Lawrence in Florida Scott-Maxwell's experimental "I Said to Myself" at the Mercury Theatre, Notting Hill Gate in 1947, Sir James Kirkham in "His Excellency" at Prince's Theatre in 1950, and Filmer Jesson, MP, in Arthur Wing Pinero's "His House In Order" at New Theatre in 1951. In 1956, he played the title role in the first British production of Hugo von Hofmannsthal's "Everyman". That same year, he wrote the lyrics to his father's ballad-opera, "All at Sea", which played at the Royal College of Music. In 1957, he played Lucifer in "Brother Lucifer" in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, and a sinister Venetian agent in Jonathan Griffin's "The Hidden King" in Edinburgh.