Back to Methuselah | |
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Written by | George Bernard Shaw |
Date premiered | 27 February 1922 |
Place premiered | Garrick Theatre, New York |
Original language | English |
Subject | Evolving stages in the future progress of humanity |
Genre | Visionary epic |
Setting | Various, 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]