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Major Barbara is a 1905 three act play by George Bernard Shaw that was first produced at the Royal Court Theatre in London. It was published in 1907. Major Barbara has been called the most controversial of Shaw's works. His seeming criticism of Christianity and The Salvation Army caused some to accuse him of blasphemy, while others defended what they saw as his realistic presentation of religion.

The play first opened on Broadway at the Playhouse Theatre December 9, 1915. There have been four Broadway revivals, 1928 at the Guild Theatre, 1956 at the Martin Beck Theatre and then the Morosco Theatre, 1980 at the Circle in the Square Theatre, and 2001 at the American Airlines Theatre.

The 1956 revival received the Tony Award for Best Stage Technician (Howard McDonald). It was nominated for Best Scenic Design (Donald Oenslager) and Best Costume Design (Dorothy Jenkins).

The 1980 revival received a Tony nomination for Reproduction (Play or Musical). (Theodore Mann: Artistic Director; Paul Libin: Managing Director).

The actor who played Andrew Undershaft in the 2001 revival, David Warner, received the Theatre World Award.

The play was also adapted into a 1941 film produced by Gabriel Pascal and starring Wendy Hiller.

Contents 1 Setting 2 Synopsis 3 Real-life models for the characters 4 Notes 5 External links

• London
• Act I: Lady Britomart's house
• Act II: The Salvation Army Shelter
• Act III: Munitions Factory

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The story is about an officer in The Salvation Army, Major Barbara Undershaft, who becomes disillusioned by social ills and the willingness of her Christian denomination to accept money from armament manufacturers, which includes her own father.

As the play opens, Lady Britomart, a woman from the British upper class, the daughter of an Earl, who is in her fifties, is discussing with her son, Stephen, some permanent source of income for her grown daughters, Sarah, who is engaged to Charles Lomax, and Barbara, who is engaged to Adolphus Cusins. Lady Britomart comes to the conclusion that the only solution to the present problem is to take monetary help from her estranged husband, Andrew Undershaft.

Mr. Undershaft is a very successful and wealthy businessman who has made millions of pounds from his munitions factory, which manufactures the world famous Undershaft guns, cannons, torpedoes, and submarines. When their children were small, the couple separated due to questions about his wealth and how it would be distributed. According to tradition, the heir to the Undershaft fortune must be an orphan who can be groomed to run the factory. Undershaft himself had been a poor young man, staying at The Salvation Army Shelter; he improved himself by working hard, and wants to give another young man the same kind of opportunity. Lady Britomart has managed to raise the children by herself. Because she has decided to seek help from her estranged husband, Stephen, Sarah, and Barbara are reintroduced with their father.

During their reunion, Undershaft learns that Barbara is a major in The Salvation Army and is employed at their shelter in West Ham, east London. A deal is made between Barbara and Mr. Undershaft to visit each other's respective places of work. So, in accordance with the deal, Mr. Undershaft meets Barbara at her shelter the following morning. As he watches her handling various people with a great deal of patience, firmness, and sincerity, while she deals with the everyday issues of the Army's social services, he is impressed with her abilities. Undershaft decides that if anyone in his family is capable of managing his business, it is his idealistic and committed daughter.

Undershaft brings Barbara back to reality by revealing the darker side of The Salvation Army when he gives a sizable donation, which she wants to refuse because the source was weaponry, and it is eagerly accepted by the officer in charge of the shelter. Disillusioned, Major Barbara leaves the shelter in tears to go with her father to his ammunition factory. Her fiancé, Adolphus Cusins, also a member of The Salvation Army, a scholar and professor of the Greek language and Greek literature, who is also a hypocrite, as he joined The Salvation Army only because he is in love with Barbara, follows her. He is soon made the heir and head of the Undershaft Munitions Foundry, because he is a foundling.

Barbara has intended to resign from the Salvation Army having seen what she views as their hypocrisy but changes her mind and tells Cusins that she will die a salvationist in the last scene. After she marries Cusins, she plans for them to live in the countryside near the munitions factory, where she will continue her work and bring her message of salvation to the factory workers instead of just to people who are poor and starving.

Although the taking of Undershaft's money is interpreted by Barbara as hypocrisy, Shaw did not intend that it should be so taken by the audience or the critics. In the preface written by Shaw to the published script, he derides the idea that charities should only take money from 'pure' sources. He points out that donated money can be put to good uses however it was acquired by the person who donated it and quotes a Salvation Army officer as saying that 'they would take money from the devil himself and be only to glad to get it out of his hand's and into God's'.

Lady Britomart Undershaft was modeled on Rosalind Howard, Countess of Carlisle, the mother-in-law of Gilbert Murray, who with his wife Lady Mary served as inspiration for Adolphus Cusins and Barbara Undershaft.^[1]

1. ^ Sidney P. Albert, "'In More Ways than One': Major Barbara's Debt to Gilbert Murray," Educational Theatre Journal, Vol. 20, No. 2. (May, 1968), pp. 123-140, and idem, "From Murray's Mother-in-Law to Major Barbara: The Outside Story," SHAW: The Annual of Bernard Shaw Studies 22 (2001), pp. 19-65.

• Major Barbara at the Internet Broadway Database (1915)
• Major Barbara at the Internet Broadway Database (1928 revival)
• Major Barbara at the Internet Broadway Database (1956 revival)
• Major Barbara at the Internet Broadway Database (1980 revival)
• Major Barbara at the Internet Broadway Database (2001 revival)
• Articles about Major Barbara at South Coast Repertory

v • d • e The Plays of George Bernard Shaw

Passion Play • Un Petit Drame • Widowers' Houses • The Philanderer • Mrs. Warren's Profession • Arms and the Man • Candida • The Man of Destiny • You Never Can Tell • The Devil's Disciple • The Gadfly • Caesar and Cleopatra • Captain Brassbound's Conversion • The Admirable Bashville • Man and Superman • Don Juan in Hell • John Bull's Other Island • How He Lied to Her Husband • Major Barbara • Passion, Poison, and Petrifaction • The Doctor's Dilemma • The Interlude at the Playhouse • Getting Married • The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet • Press Cuttings • Fascinating Foundling • The Glimpse of Reality • Misalliance • The Dark Lady of the Sonnets • Fanny's First Play • Androcles and the Lion • Overruled • Beauty's Duty • Pygmalion • Great Catherine • The Music Cure • O'Flaherty V.C. • The Inca of Perusalem • Augustus Does His Bit • Macbeth Skit • Annajanska, the Bolshevik Empress • Heartbreak House • Back to Methuselah • A Glimpse of the Domesticity of Franklin Barnabas • Jitta's Atonement • Saint Joan • The Apple Cart • Too True to Be Good • How These Doctors Love One Another! • Village Wooing • On the Rocks • The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles • The Six of Calais • The Millionairess • Arthur and the Acetone • Cymbeline Refinished • Geneva • In Good King Charles' Golden Days • The British Party System • Buoyant Billions • Farfetched Fables • Shakes versus Shav • Why She Would Not