Then I too willed to renew myself as two instead of one; and aftermany days the miracle happened, and I burst from my skin another snakeinterlaced with me; and now there are two imaginations, two desires, twowills to create with. She is a better sort of woman to live with than you. EVE. Members of the younger generation, in the persons of Franklyn's daughter Savvy and her sweetheart, a young cleric named Haslam, are at the presentation, too. ADAM [_ruminating_] You puzzle me. The hard work of government is carried out by hired consultants from Africa and China unless competent Scots, Irishmen or Welshmen chance to be available. He rises, stiffens, and falls dead. Without danger I cannot be great. Yes, until you create another Adam. CAIN. . The Archbishop is recognizably the Reverend Haslam, Savvy Barnabas' sweetheart, no longer callow, but dignified and confident and looking no more than fifty. claim that all sensible people agree with him, put forward in Back to Methuselah by both Savvy and Professor Conrad. Life is theloveliest of all the new words. ADAM. If you are content, like the bear, I am not. He begs the oracle to respond in the same way she did to his illustrious predecessor, Sir Fuller Eastwind. It is a cycle of five plays which Shaw calls a 'metabiological pentateuch'. Barnabas goes to meet the American inventor, who wants to use Records Office film footage to create a [_Trying to pronounce it_] B-birth? Back To Methuselah. You have both invented marriage. I heard a new voice. The official database for Broadway theatre information . [_Calling_] Adam!Adam! I adore her. [Shaw wrote an extra scene for this part, which he later deleted and then published separately as A Glimpse of the Domesticity of Franklyn Barnabas], The Thing Happens begins in 2170, 150 years after the Barnabas brothers disclosed their inferences, Englishmen continue immature throughout their lives. I cleared away the thistles and briars. If only I can be relieved of the horror of having to enduremyself for ever! Yes: that must not be. EVE. But it might be. EVE [_throwing herself down discontentedly and plucking at the grass_]That is so like a man. His prime interest was not scientific, but political, as stated in the Preface where he discusses changes he considers essential before mankind can govern itself successfully. EVE. Bernard Shaw's epic "Back to Methuselah", which was first performed in 1922, has been revived by The Royal Shakespeare Company to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Shaw's death. She said it must never be again: that theburden of renewing life was past bearing: that it was too much for one.And when she cast the skin, lo! Lilith did not imagine him so. The first scene opens with England's president, Burge-Lubin (descendant and composite of the politicians seen in The Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas) squabbling with a Barnabas descendantvia telephones equipped with televisionabout which of them should welcome a visiting American who has invented a method for breathing underwater. EVE. It was true: Isaw the fire consume the food on his altar. That is how I pay forAbel's blood. Eve, better humored (having given upworrying), sits and spins and thinks. Anything is better than uncertainty. ADAM. CAIN. EVE. One does not speak to a child as to a man.And a man does not listen and tremble in silence. And pray, what use is this thousand years of life to you, youold vegetable? EVE. The growth of Shaw's own imaginative response to the catastrophe of war became a deliberate project in which he encapsulated his general conclusions about imagination based on his experience of confronting You must tell us your secret. To be thefirst murderer one must be a man of spirit. The reason for his doing so, as he tells Confucius, is that he doesn't wish to risk contracting rheumatism from exposure to the cold waters of the bay, since he might have to live 300 years, rheumatic. A path with stairs of rough-cut stone leads upward from the temple to the hill. Your hood is most lovely. It has not yet told me the secret. Your hood is most lovely. Her fury turns to delight with the beauty of her tunic when they dress her. And of Lua they will say nothing; but when they thinkof her they will spit. I donot know what I want, except that I want to be something higher andnobler than this stupid old digger whom Lilith made to help you to bringme into the world, and whom you despise now that he has served yourturn. Cassio from 'Othello'3rd Gentleman from 'The Winter's Tale'Cain from 'Back to Methuselah' by George Bernard Shaw EVE. The Garden of Eden. Stay with the womanwho gives you children: I will go to the woman who gives me dreams.Grope in the ground for your food: I will bring it from the skies withmy arrows, or strike it down as it roams the earth in the pride of itslife. ADAM. In the Beginning: B.C. Kill me; and you will find another snake in thegarden tomorrow. If I must have food or die, I will at least have it at as far aremove from the earth as I can. Do you think I never have thesethoughts: I! I am not lying: I dare all truths. Both are speaking English, but their cultural backgrounds are so different that communication is not easy. Let Eve vow to loveyou until your death. When there are new Adams and new Eves we shall live in a garden ofstrangers. EVE. Do not listen to her: the noise is good: it lightens my heart.You are a jolly snake. I am to be a mere convenience to make men for you to kill! EVE. I can talk of many things. Some day you shall see me come outof this beautiful skin, a new snake with a new and lovelier skin. Lua was awoman-child when I bore her. She tells him he would die of discouragement if he talked to elders, male or femaleeven with her, conversation would be dangerous if she were not veiled and robed with insulating material. THE SERPENT. He is mine. I can remember when you were yourself a thing that couldnot happen. You must not move about.You must sit still. In an effort to shed light on what he regards as a pervasive failure of modern governance, Shaw projects his imagination backwards and forwards in time, dissecting what went wrong and . All were written during 1918 to 1920 and published simultaneously by Constable (London) and Brentano's (New York) in 1921. But he killed him. ADAM [_releasing her_] That is true. Do. [_She rises, and passing behind him, strolls offcarelessly to the tree and leans against it, stroking a ring of thesnake_]. THE SERPENT. [3] Neither Creative Evolution nor the Life Force were Shavian inventions. Zozim belittles that display as well, but the visitors are overawed and become unnerved completely when the oracle appears as an insubstantial figure amidst lightnings and thunder. THE SERPENT. ADAM. I make no vows. I know that it must not be. CAIN. Pleasant at first, their behaviour soon turns murderous and Pygmalion is killed during his efforts to control them. The sun will give life. Choose a day for your death; and resolve to die on thatday. They do not grow very fast. [She strokes it and pets the serpent]. EVE [_angrily to the snake_] This death that you have brought into thegarden is an evil thing. [_She sits on the rock and throws herarms round the serpent, who begins whispering to her_]. EVE [_slipping her hand into his_] Wife and husband. And be it noted, Lilith, the first mother, is the presiding imaginative principle of Back to Methuselah itself. I, too, have thought of something. And that request was granted: "Go home, poor fool" the oracle replies repeating what she had said to Eastwind. Come here. And there is yet nearly sevenhundred years of it to endure. Moreover, he has recognized the person as the currently alive and active Archbishop of York. A He-Ancient, who is called to decide the creatures' fate. And what he will be to youand not to any other woman is husband; and what you will be to him andnot to any other man is wife. Rebecca Sunshine performing a monologue 'The Serpent's Tale'. But is it long enough for theother things, the great things? That is what hasbrought me to my mother today. He who bearsthe brand of Cain shall rule the earth. EVE. Why not live bravely, and die early and makeroom for others? Back to Methuselah. My boy: this is neither man nor woman nor lovenor life. An immense serpent is sleeping withher head buried in a thick bed of Johnswort, and her body coiled inapparently endless rings through the branches of a tree, which isalready well grown; for the days of creation have been longer than ourreckoning. I dug and dugand dug. I have another thought: I must tell it to Adam. [_To Cain_] Your father is a fool skin deep;but you are a fool to your very marrow; and your baggage of a wife isworse. I thought for a moment that perhaps thisstrong brave son of mine, who could imagine something better, and coulddesire what he imagined, might also be able to will what he desireduntil he created it. That is what you think, is it? It is I who must conceive. Promise me you will be careful. Shaw, Bernard. ADAM [_impressed_] That is a great thought, certainly. Well, this is the problem examined by Bernard Shaw in his Back to Methuselah. If I did not knowthat I loved Eve, at least I did not know that she might cease to loveme, and come to love some other Adam and desire my death. (5 episodes, 1952) Series Writing Credits George Bernard Shaw . THE SERPENT. And there, next to it, a briar. ADAM. THE SERPENT. No. If I am to overtake death, I must appoint a real day, not atomorrow. They expound his philosophy of creative evolution in an extended dramatic parable that progresses through time from the Garden of Eden to 31,920 ce. ADAM. He was not my keeper any more than I was his: why did he notkill me? They have not will enoughto create instead of dreaming; but the serpent said that every dreamcould be willed into creation by those strong enough to believe in it.There are others who cut reeds of different lengths and blow throughthem, making lovely patterns of sound in the air; and some of them canweave the patterns together, sounding three reeds at the same time, andraising my soul to things for which I have no words. It, too, is most impressive with a show of eerie lighting in a measureless abyss. The woman knows that there is no such thing as nothing: the manknows that there is no such day as tomorrow. Then I will do it. He was not in its judgment because he chose to live God's ways. I had not thought of that. ADAM [_throwing his arm round her shoulder with an expression ofanguish_] Oh no: that is plain without any voice. promotional cinema showing sundry important Britons who have lost their lives by drowning, but who, with the invention's help, might not have perished. Do you love your godmother Eve? You are very subtle:tell me what to do. You have no real strength in your bones nor sap in your flesh. I am the first murderer: you are only the first man. Eve thoughtfully remarks that there is more to living than Back to Methuselah is an epic-length play by George Bernard Shaw - not a writer given to brevity normally - so long and unwieldy, in fact, that Washington Stage Guild estimates that this three-year production is only the third or fourth full production of the play since it was written, in 1920. There is no mistaking itfor any voice of the birds or beasts, or for your voice. It is I who must conceive. Ha! It was I whowhispered the word to you that you did not know. A woman approaches to ask if he needs help. ADAM. I have done it too, slave as you say I am. EVE. He shrieks and falls, but rises once again, because The Oracle missed her target. Living. CAIN. I will tell you a great secret. THE SERPENT. Listen.I am old. Throw it into the river. 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