You Never Can Tell

by Bernard Shaw

Overview

You Never Can Tell is an 1897 four-act play by George Bernard Shaw that debuted at the Royalty Theatre. It was published as part of a volume of Shaw's plays entitled Plays Pleasant.

The play is set in a seaside town and tells the story of Mrs Clandon and her three children, Dolly, Phillip and Gloria, who have just returned to England after an eighteen-year stay in Madeira.

The children have no idea who their father is and, through a comedy of errors, end up inviting him to a family lunch. At the same time a dentist named Valentine has fallen in love with the eldest daughter, Gloria. However, Gloria considers herself a modern woman and claims to have no interest in love or marriage.

The play continues with a comedy of errors and confused identities, with the friendly and wise waiter, Walter (most commonly referred to by the characters as "William," because Dolly thinks he resembles Shakespeare), dispensing his wisdom with the titular phrase "You Never Can Tell." (wikipedia.org)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781514305294
Publisher:	CreateSpace Publishing
Publication date:	06/10/2015
Pages:	78
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.16(d)

About the Author

From 26 July 1856 to 2 November 1950, Irish playwright, critic, polemicist, and political activist George Bernard Shaw was alive. He preferred to be referred to simply as Bernard Shaw. From the 1880s until his death and even after, he had a significant impact on Western politics, theater, and society. He produced more than sixty plays, including classics like Saint Joan (1913), Pygmalion (1913), and Man and Superman (1902). (1923). Shaw became a well-known playwright during his time and was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1925 for his works that combine historical allegory and contemporary satire. Before Shaw's first play, Arms and the Man, published in 1894, became a success in the public eye, years passed. He tried to infuse new realism into English-language drama, influenced by Henrik Ibsen. He had established himself as a reputable theater and music critic by the mid-1880s. After having a political awakening, he joined the gradualist Fabian Society and swiftly advanced to the position of principal pamphleteer. Before Shaw's first play, Arms and the Man, published in 1894, became a success in the public eye, years passed. He tried to infuse new realism into English-language drama, influenced by Henrik Ibsen.

Read an Excerpt

ACT III The Clandons' sitting room in the hotel. An expensive apartment on the ground floor, with a French window leading to the gardens. In the centre of the room is a substantial table, surrounded by chairs, and draped with a maroon cloth on which opulently bound hotel and railway guides are displayed. A visitor entering through the window and coming down to this central table would have the fireplace on his left, and a writing table against the wall on his right, next the door, which is further down. He would, if his taste lay that way, admire the wall decoration of Lincrusta Walton in plum color and bronze lacquer, with dado and cornice; the ormolu consoles in the corners; the vases on pillar pedestals of veined marble with bases of polished black wood, one on each side of the window; the ornamental cabinet next the vase on the side nearest the fireplace, its centre compartment closed by an inlaid door, and its corners rounded off with curved panes of glass protecting shelves of cheap blue and white pottery; the bamboo tea table, with folding shelves, in the corresponding space on the other side of the window; the pictures of ocean steamers and Landseer' 2 dogs; the saddle bag ottoman in line with the door but on the other side of the room; the two comfortable seats of the same pattern on the hearthrug; and finally, on turning round and looking up, the massive brass pole above the window, sustaining a pair of maroon rep curtains with decorated borders of staid green. Altogether, a room well arranged to flatter the occupant's sense of importance, and reconcile him to a charge of a pound a day for its use. Mrs. Clandon sits at the writing table, correcting proofs. Gloria isstanding at the window, looking out in a tormented revery. The clock on the mantelpiece strikes J...