Fact check: Did George Bernard Shaw lose the ability to understand his plays as he aged?

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Fact check: Did George Bernard Shaw lose the ability to understand his plays as he aged?

Posted: 9/24/16 at 12:35am

I wanted to do a fact-check here, to see if I'm right:

As I remember it, when George Bernard Shaw got into his 90's, he lost the ability to understand the finer points of his plays - and he then decided, Well, that's how it must be for everyone! So he went back to "simplify" his plays, but his friends stopped him.

Is this right? And if it is, can someone give a source for that?

Thanks in advance!

Fact check: Did George Bernard Shaw lose the ability to understand his plays as he aged?

Posted: 9/24/16 at 1:15am

Ah, okay, here it is: Edward Albee mentioned it during his Academy of Achievement interview:

"Do you know that wonderful story about Bernard Shaw? That when he got into his 90s -- I hope it's true -- he was reading one of his earlier plays one day, and he was having trouble understanding it. So, he rewrote it and simplified it so he could understand it. They had to take his work away from him because he was doing that. [Laughter] It might have helped some of them."

Interviewer: You don't anticipate doing that yourself.

Albee: "Oh God, I hope not! I hope they'll take them away from me if I do that."

Fact check: Did George Bernard Shaw lose the ability to understand his plays as he aged?

Posted: 9/24/16 at 1:41am

Yeah can someone explain Major Barbara to me? They should have let him have a go at that one.

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