The Theater: Old Play in Manhattan, may 5, 1952

Candida remains one of Shaw's most popular plays, partly because it is one of his slickest; by 1894 the iconoclastic G.B.S. had already learned all the oldest tricks of the trade. Along with a sprinkling of Christian socialism, he put into Candida the essence of secretarial infatuation. He made Candida's father a symbol of petty capitalism, and standard low comedy as, well. And Shaw, picturing a happy marriage, made it look like a triangle story, right down to the Big Scene where Candida has to choose between her parson husband and her poet suitor. She chooses the husband on the ground...