Candida (play)

Candida , a comedy by playwright George Bernard Shaw, was writ t en in 1894 and first published in
1898, as part of his Plays Pleasant. The cent ral charact ers are clergyman James Morell, his wife
Candida and a yout hful poet , Eugene Marchbanks, who t ries t o win Candida's affect ions. The play
quest ions Vict orian not ions of love and marriage, asking what a woman really desires from her
husband. The cleric is a Christ ian Socialist , allowing Shaw (who was a Fabian Socialist ) t o weave
polit ical issues, current at t he t ime, int o t he st ory.

Shaw at t empt ed but failed t o have a London product ion of t he play put on in t he 1890s, but
t here were t wo small provincial product ions. However, in lat e 1903 act or Arnold Daly had such a
great success wit h t he play t hat Shaw would writ e by 1904 t hat New York was seeing "an
out break of Candidamania". The Royal Court Theat re in London performed t he play in six
mat inees in 1904. The same t heat re st aged several ot her of Shaw's plays from 1904 t o 1907,
including furt her revivals of Candida .

Characters
In order of appearance
Miss Proserpine
Candida
Garnett—Morell's
secretary
The Reverend
James Mavor
Morell—a Katharine Cornell
and Pedro de
clergyman and
Cordoba in the 1924
Candida's
Broadway
husband
production of
The Reverend Candida
Alexander (Lexy) Written by George
Mill Bernard
Mr Burgess Shaw

Candida Date premiered 30

Marc
 Eugene 1894
Marchbanks Place premiered The
Roy
Plot Sou
Shie

Original language En

Subject The wife

A scene from a production of the play
in Berlin
of a
The play is set in t he nort heast suburbs of
London in t he mont h of Oct ober. It t ells t he
clergyman
st ory of Candida, t he wife of a famous
clergyman, t he Reverend James Mavor Morell.
must
Morell is a Christ ian Socialist , popular in t he
Church of England, but Candida is responsible choose
for much of his success. Candida ret urns home
briefly from a t rip t o London wit h Eugene between
Marchbanks, a young poet who want s t o
rescue her from what he presumes t o be her her
dull family life.
husband
Marchbanks is in love wit h Candida and
believes she deserves somet hing more t han and a
just complacency from her husband. He
considers her divine, and his love et ernal. In his man who
view, it is quit e improper and humiliat ing for
Candida t o have t o at t end t o pet t y household
chores. Morell believes Candida needs his care
and prot ect ion, but t he t rut h is quit e t he idealises
cont rary. Ult imat ely, Candida must choose
bet ween t he t wo gent lemen. She reassert s her
her preference for t he "weaker of t he t wo"
who, aft er a moment ary uncert aint y, t urns out
Genre comedy
t o be her husband Morell.

Setting north-
Early east
productions London
and
Candidamani
a
The play was first performed at t he Theat re Royal, Sout h Shields on 30 March 1895. It was
revived by t he Independent Theat re Company, at Her Majest y's Theat re, Aberdeen on 30 July
1897. It was first performed in London at t he St age Societ y, The St rand, on 1 July 1900.
However, it was not unt il lat e 1903, when Arnold Daly mount ed a product ion at t he Princess
Theat re in New York t hat t he play became a success. Daly's product ion was quickly followed by
one in London. The first public performance in London was on 26 April 1904, at t he Royal Court .[1]

The play was so popular in 1904 t hat t he phenomenon was referred t o as "Candidamania". In t he
words of The New York Sun,

A new complaint has become widespread. It may be described as 'Candidamania.' It

is a contagious disease, frequently caught in street cars, elevated trains,
department stores, restaurants, and other places where people talk about what
 they did the night before. 'Have you seen Candida?' is the question of the hour.
Thousands are dragging their friends to see Mr. Shaw's play."[2]

Shaw himself adopt ed t he t erm, as have lat er writ ers.[3] Shaw felt t hat t he play was
misint erpret ed by some of it s public. He wrot e his short 1904 comedy How He Lied to Her
Husband, in part as a kind of reply t o Candida . The play depict s a farcical version of t he same
sit uat ion. Shaw's friend Archibald Henderson described it as "t he reduct io ad absurdum of t he
Candidamaniacs".[4]

Criticism and interpretation

In Bernard Shaw and the Aesthetes , Elsie Bonit a Adams has given t his assessment of
Marchbanks, comparing him t o t wo real-life art ist s:

Though Marchbanks has many of the external characteristics and some of the
attitudes of the aesthete-artist such as Sholto Douglas or Adrian Herbert, he does
not pay mere lip-service to art, his sensitivity is no pose, and he tries to rid himself
of illusions.[5]

Shaw himself describes Eugene's st ory-arc as a realizat ion t hat Candida is not at all what he
want s from life, t hat t he kind of domest ic love she could provide "is essent ially t he creat ure of
limit at ions which are far t ranscended in his own nat ure".[6] When Eugene depart s int o t he night , it
is not "t he night of despair and darkness but t he free air and holy st arlight which is so much more
nat ural an at mosphere t o him t han t his st uffy fireside warmt h of mot hers and sist ers and wives
and so on".[6] Eugene, according t o Shaw, "is really a god going back t o his heaven, proud,
unspeakably cont empt uous of t he 'happiness' he envied in t he days of his blindness, clearly
seeing t hat he has higher business on hand t han Candida".[7] For her part , Candida is "very immoral"
and complet ely misreads Eugene's t ransformat ion over t he course of t he play.[7]

Andy Propst of Time Out list ed Candida as t he 25t h great est play of all t ime, arguing t hat it
"brist les wit h Shavian wit and point ed polit ical and social debat e, ult imat ely shimmering as a
shrewd considerat ion of love and marriage in Vict orian England – or really any period."[8]

Later productions

Actor Lewis Casson drives the Old Vic

Travelling Theatre Company scenery
van during the Old Vic tour of South
Wales in 1941. The van is an old
furniture removal van. A poster above
the windscreen advertises the play
they will be performing as Candida,
starring Casson and Sybil Thorndike,
and directed by Tyrone Guthrie.

Kat harine Cornell played t he lead role on Broadway in five different product ions, t he last four of
which were for her own product ion company. She was t he act ress most closely associat ed wit h
t his role. Shaw st at ed t hat she had creat ed "an ideal Brit ish Candida in my imaginat ion" as she
essent ially re-envisioned t he role of Candida, making her t he cent ral charact er in t he play.
Previously, Candida herself was not conceived by direct ors or act resses as import ant as t he
issues and t hemes t hat Shaw was t rying t o convey. The first t ime Cornell played t he role in 1924,
she was so acclaimed t hat Act ors' Theat re, which cont rolled t he product ion right s t o t he play in
t he Unit ed St at es, forbade any ot her act ress from playing t he role while Cornell was st ill alive. In
her final product ion of 1946, a young Marlon Brando played t he role of Marchbanks.[9]

A version for Aust ralian t elevision aired in 1962.[10] Reviewing t he adapt at ion, t he Sydney Morning
Herald was crit ical of t he product ion st yle but praised t he cast .[11]
The Roundabout Theat er Company present ed a Broadway revival in 1993 wit h Mary St eenburgen,
Robert Foxwort h and Robert Sean Leonard.

A Court Theat re Company product ion st arring JoBet h Williams and Tom Amandes was recorded
by t he L.A. Theat re Works.[12]

In 2003 t he Canadian Broadcast ing Corporat ion broadcast a product ion of t he play. An Oxford
St age Company product ion of Candida t oured t he UK in 2004, wit h Andrew Havill as Morell,
Serena Evans as Candida, and Richard Glaves as Marchbanks.

In February 2009 BBC Radio 7 repeat ed a broadcast of a radio product ion of t he play st arring
Hannah Gordon as Candida, Edward Pet herbridge as Morell, and Christ opher Guard as Eugene. It
was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 15 August 1977.

It was revived at t he Theat re Royal, Bat h in July 2013 wit h Charit y Wakefield as Candida, Jamie
Parker as Morell, Frank Dillane as Marchbanks and David Trought on as Mr Burgess, Candida's
fat her.

In March/April 2015 at t he Gat ehouse Theat re in London, Judi Bowker played Candida wit h Harry
Meacher as Morell, Sebast ian Cornelius Marchbanks and Roger Sansom as Burgess.

Musical adaptation
In 2009, Writ ers Theat re present ed a musical adapt at ion of t he play under t he t it le A Minister's
Wife, wit h music by Josh Schmidt ; lyrics by Jan Tranen; book by Aust in Pendlet on; conceived and
direct ed by Art ist ic Direct or Michael Halberst am. The product ion was crit ically acclaimed and in
2011, t he Lincoln Cent er mount ed a new product ion of t he piece (also direct ed by Halberst am).
The product ion feat ured Kat e Fry as Candida; Bobby St eggert as Marchbanks; Marc Kudisch as
Morell; Liz Balt es as Prossy; and Drew Gehling as Lexy. The product ion received out st anding
not ices in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Charles Isherwood, writ ing in The New
York Times , called it a "lovingly composed chamber musical" which "moves wit h a gent le st ep,
keeping an int imat e focus on it s cent ral charact ers."[13]

An original cast recording from PS Classics was released on 30 August . The West Coast
Premiere of t he musical adapt at ion opened in June 2013 at The San Jose Repert ory Theat er
direct ed by Michael Halberst am.

References

1. Violet M. Broad & C. Lewis Broad,

Dictionary to the Plays and Novels of
Bernard Shaw, A. & C. Black, London, 1929,
p.216.

2. The Sun, New York, 12 March 1904.

3. Charles Harlen Shattuck, Shakespeare on
the American Stage: From Booth and
Barrett to Sothern and Marlowe, Associated
University Presses, 1976, p.28.

4. Archibald Henderson, George Bernard

Shaw: Man of the Century, Appleton-
Century-Crofts, New York, 1956, p.565.
5. Adams, Elsie Bonita, Bernard Shaw and the
Aesthetes (Ohio State University Press,
1986, ISBN 0-8142-0155-5), p. 107 (https://
books.google.com/books?id=alASMMA3d
4IC&pg=PA107) at books.google.com,
retrieved 25 January 2008

6. Shaw, letter to William Archer, c. 21 April

1898. Printed in Eight Modern Plays, ed.
Anthony Caputi. Norton Critical Ed. New
York: Norton, 1991. pp. 489–490.

7. Shaw, letter to James Huneker, 6 April

1904. Printed in Eight Modern Plays, ed.
Anthony Caputi. Norton Critical Ed. New
York: Norton, 1991. pp. 490–491.
 8. Propst, Andy (11 March 2020). "50 Best
Plays of All Time: Comedies, Tragedies and
Dramas Ranked" (https://www.timeout.co
m/newyork/theater/best-plays-of-all-time) .
Time Out New York. Retrieved 8 June 2020.

9. Tad Mosel, Leading Lady: The World and

Theatre of Katharine Cornell, Little, Brown &
Co., 1978

10. "The Age – Google News Archive Search"

(https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=
VF8RAAAAIBAJ&sjid=jJYDAAAAIBAJ&pg=
6856%2C364553) . google.com.

11. "The Sydney Morning Herald – Google

News Archive Search" (https://news.google.
com/newspapers?id=MH1WAAAAIBAJ&sji
d=u-UDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5255%2C166731
2) . google.com.
12. "Candida" (http://www.dramaonlinelibrary.c
om/doall/audio) .
www.dramaonlinelibrary.com.
doi:10.5040/9781580814270 (https://doi.o
rg/10.5040%2F9781580814270) .
Retrieved 6 February 2024.

13. Isherwood, Charles (8 May 2011). "Three

Hearts Butt Heads in One Marriage" (http
s://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/09/theate
r/reviews/a-ministers-wife-at-mitzi-e-newho
use-theater-review.html?pagewanted=all&_r
=0) . The New York Times.

External links

Wikisou
rce has
original
Candida (https://gutenb text
related
erg.org/ebooks/4023) to this
at Project Gutenberg article:
Candid
​Candida​(https://www.i a

bdb.com/broadway-sh Wikimed
ow/2381) at the ia
Commo
Internet Broadway ns has
Database media
related
Candida (https://libriv to
Candida
ox.org/search?title=Ca (play).
ndida&author=Shaw&re
ader=&keywords=&genre_id=0&status=
all&project_type=either&recorded_langu
age=&sort_order=catalog_date&search
 _page=1&search_form=advanced)
public domain audiobook at LibriVox

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