The Dark Lady of the Sonnets

About

Shaw's 1910 one-act comedy imagines Shakespeare encountering Queen Elizabeth and the Dark Lady of the sonnets in the same night — then noting down their speeches in his notebook for later use. Shaw uses the conceit to argue for a National Theatre (then a cause he was championing) and to satirize the bardolatry that treats Shakespeare's every word as sacred. Brief, sharp, and very funny, the play works excellently in informal settings and requires only three performers. The idea of Shakespeare as essentially a magpie of other people's better conversation is vintage Shaw.