Back to Methuselah

Back to Methuselah
Written byGeorge Bernard Shaw
Date premiered27 February 1922
Place premieredGarrick Theatre, New York
Original languageEnglish
SubjectEvolving stages in the future progress of humanity
GenreVisionary epic
SettingVarious, spanning 36,000 years

Back to Methuselah (A Metabiological Pentateuch) by George Bernard Shaw consists of a preface (The Infidel Half Century) and a series of five plays: In the Beginning: B.C. 4004 (In the Garden of Eden), The Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas: Present Day, The Thing Happens: A.D. 2170, Tragedy of an Elderly Gentleman: A.D. 3000, and As Far as Thought Can Reach: A.D. 31,920.

All were written during 1918 to 1920 and published simultaneously by Constable (London) and Brentano's (New York) in 1921. They were first performed in 1922 by the New York Theatre Guild at the old Garrick Theatre in New York City[1] and, in Britain, at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in 1923.[2]

  1. ^ Walter Prichard Eaton, The Theatre Guild, the First Ten Years, Brentano's, New York, 1929, p. 248.
  2. ^ Holroyd, Michael, Bernard Shaw: The One-Volume Definitive Edition, p. 510. (Random House, 1997).