The Philanderer, one of Bernard Shaw’s earliest comedies, a cynical, heartless, semi-autobiographical piece, was written in 1893 when its satire on Ibsen and the New Woman was topical. Artistic director Paul Miller stages the four act version, which Shaw was persuaded to cut at the very first production.
The opening scene is based on what actually occurred on the 4th February. Jenny Patterson, Shaw’s discarded mistress, burst in on him and the actress Florence Farr, whilst they were enjoying the hurly-burly of the chaise longue. “I did not pursue women,” complained Shaw. “I was pursued by them.”
The philanderer is Leonard Charteris (Rupert Young, a charmer), who finds the fickleness of the women he loves only equalled by the infernal constancy of the women who love him. He argues his case for philandering and escapes the clutches of a habitual and intolerable jealous termagant (Dorothea Myer-Bennett) by expediently marrying her off to a friend, Dr Paramore (Christopher Staines).
For those who complain that Shaw is too wordy, Shaw has this to say: “It is quite true that my plays are all talk, just as Raphael’s pictures are all paint. Michelangelo’s statues are all marble. Beethoven’s symphonies are all noise.”
There are also some good jokes at the expense of the medical profession. The Philanderer is very enjoyable. My main regret is that Miller hasn’t kept the original Victorian setting. What Shaw has to say on sex, marriage (“that worst of blundering abominations”), and indeed divorce, is much more daring when it is set in 1893 than when it is set in the 21st century.