"The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles"

1936 Shaw, [George] Bernard (1856-1950). “The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles.” In his The Simpleton, The Six, and the Millionaires: Three Plays (London: Constable, 1936), 19-81. Rpt. with the subtitle A Vision of Judgment. In The Bodley Head Bernard Shaw. Collected Plays with their Prefaces (London: Max Reinhardt The Bodley Head, 1973), 6: 741-846, with the “Preface” on 745-64. First published in German translation as Die Insel der Überraschungen ein Spiel in zwei Akten und einem Prolog. Trans. Siegfried Trebitsch (Berlin: S. Fischer Verlag, 1935), with the first scene of the “Prologue” having been published in the Berliner Tageblatt (February 12, 1935). Written in 1934 and first performed in 1935 in New York. See his “Preface on Days of Judgment.” The Bodley Head Bernard Shaw. Collected Plays with their Prefaces (London: Max Reinhardt The Bodley Head, 1973), 6: 745-64. Rpt. with the subtitle “(The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles).” In his The Complete Prefaces. Volume 3: 1930-1950. Ed. Dan H. Laurence and Daniel J. Leary (London: Allen Lane The Penguin Press, 1997), 229-41. See also his “The Simple Truth of the Matter (A reply to the assertion of Joseph Wood Krutch in The Nation New York [140 (March 6, 1935): 286-87] that Shaw’s recent plays were merely vaudeville, quite devoid of meaning.” Malvern Festival Book, 1935). Rpt. in The Bodley Head Bernard Shaw. Collected Plays with their Prefaces (London: Max Reinhardt The Bodley Head, 1973), 6: 841-46. L

Satire describing a eugenic experiment on an isolated island using group marriage. Ends with a satire on the Day of Judgment, which Shaw presents as the point of the play.