Bernard Shaw and the Charles Macdona Partnership: Part I

ABSTRACT This article is the first half of a two-part article on the mostly overlooked professional partnership between Bernard Shaw and producer Charles Macdona, which claimed 7,000 performances of Shaw’s plays from 1912 to 1939. It begins by exploring their collaborations through 1924. Macdona’s early successful tours of Fanny’s First Play and Pygmalion led to Macdona forming a touring Bernard Shaw Repertory in 1921. The Repertory’s tours increased Macdona’s ambitions, which led to extended runs in London and Paris through 1924. While such actions irritated directors of permanent repertory theaters, Shaw did not discourage Macdona’s efforts. Instead, they pressed on.