Augustus Does His Bit

About

Shaw's 1917 one-act was written for performance at charity benefits during the First World War and is a brisk piece of anti-pomposity: the self-important Lord Augustus, a committee man doing his bit for the war effort, is effortlessly outmaneuvered by an efficient woman and a visiting patriot whose 'spy' activities turn out to be entirely legitimate. Shaw uses a single rapid scene to demonstrate how wartime bureaucracy amplifies incompetence without testing it. Brief and very funny, it plays well in informal settings.