George Bernard Shaw and Christopher Newton: Explorations of Shavian Theatre - Softcover

Christopher Newton has placed the Shaw Festival firmly on the map world-class theatre. His best Shavian productions are revolutionary re-interpretations of plays that are normally treated as Edwardian period pieces or didactic entertainments. In this first full-length study of Newton, critic Keith Garebian shows how the pairing of Shaw and Newton, that once seemed "not bloody likely" has become one of the most exciting enterprises in Canadian theatre, with startling results. The book begins with a biographical section that sketches some of the most pervasive influences on Newton's artistic sensibility, and suggests what has particularly inspired his ever-growing fascination with Shaw. Successive chap-ters document Newton's concept of Shaw as a surrealist, and contain detailed descriptions of productions at Niagara-on-the-Lake from 1980-1990. Among other things, readers are shown a Caesar and Cleopatra set in a Shadow Box; Heartbreak House as a dream-play of the night and anarchy; Major Barbara as a double quest; You Never Can Tell as part comic romance, part farcical metaphor; the metatheatrical suggestions of Man and Super-man; and a Misalliance as metaphor of a convulsive new age. As Garebian shows, Newton's approach for all its paradoxes, succeeds in making George Bernard Shaw our dynamic contemporary.

Keith Garebian is an award-winning author of 17 books and over 1200 articles, reviews, features, and interviews in more than a hundred newspapers, journals, magazines, and anthologies. A frequent book reviewer for the Globe and Mail, his previous books of poetry are Reservoir of Ancestors, Frida: Paint Me as a Volcano, Blue: The Derek Jarman Poems, Children of Ararat, and the chapbook Samson's Hair and Other Satirical Fantasies. His poetry has been translated into French and Armenian, and some of his awards include the Mississauga Arts Award (2000 and 2008), the Lakeshore Arts and Scarborough Arts Council Poetry Award for Poetry (2003), the Dan Sullivan Memorial Poetry Award (Runner-up, 2006), the Canadian Authors Association (Niagara Branch) Poetry Award (2009), and the Naji Naaman Literary Honour Prize (2009). He has twice made the long-list for the Re-Lit Award for Poetry. He lives in Mississauga.