Arena came to listeners as a live broadcast from Smock Alley Theatre in collaboration with the Dublin Book Festival to mark the anniversary of the death of George Bernard Shaw. Sean Rocks was joined by numerous contributors and performers to explore Shaw’s life and work, including theatre director Annabelle Comyn, poet and playwright Dermot Bolger and writer Carlo Gebler.
One of the most interesting aspects of the discussion was with columnist, Fintan O’Toole, who has authored the book, Judging Shaw. O’Toole remarked that it is truly impressive how far-reaching Shaw’s fame was, considering the era.
“By 1930…if you went to almost any part of the world and you just said to any literate person, you just said “GBS” – just three letters – they knew who you were talking about. They knew what he looked like. They knew how he spoke. And they knew what he stood for.”
All the more impressive, O’Toole noted, was Shaw’s ability to overcome a natural timidity in order to perform.
“Shaw himself, by his own account, is this very nervous, very shy, timid man. He’s an exile in London…he’s not well connected. So, how does he pull off the trick? He pulls off the trick by inventing this alter-ego.”
Credit must also be given, O’Toole told Sean, for Shaw’s ability to share his work independently, a ground-breaking effort at the time.
“Shaw is the first person in the history of the world to invent a global brand. A personal global brand. On his own. So, without a monarchy or a papacy or Hollywood or any…big machine behind him.”
Listen back to the full broadcast, including music from the Rathmines & Rathgar Musical Society, here.