JAMES GRASBY: Hello and welcome to the National Trust podcast in

this mini episode. We'll be meeting Evelyn Ellis, a key

member of the Shaw Society, a dedicated group of Shaw fans who

celebrate his work through live readings at Shaw's Corner. [

GENERIC: Sound of theatre performance] Something dreadful

has happened.

What's the matter? I've lost your poem!

EVELYN ELLIS: The young actors who have starved of Shaw. Once

they read it, they're absolutely hooked.

GENERIC: You just don't realize quite how prolific he was, how

much work of his there is out there. So, you know, I'm always

finding new ones. [

Sound of Theatrical Performance] These are my poems!

So I gather...

What a shame, Mrs bumpers shown them to you. You must think me

an utter ass!

EVELYN ELLIS: It's witty, it's clever and he's always putting

across a message is relevant right up to this very minute.

I'm Evelyn Ellis and I'm treasurer of the Shaw Society,

but I'm also general dog's body! I just about do everything!

A lot of the people who go to the Shaw plays at Shaw's Corner,

they go because they love Shaw's Corner, they love Shaw but they

don't really know about the Shaw society. And I think this year

we gained a lot of support and we seem to have come alive since

then.

GENERIC: Just, it's an exciting place to be because you're

living it!

It's living history from my understanding, it hasn't changed

at all since he passed. And so to actually be acting in the

place that the plays were written, I think that's- that's

fantastic. And something that, that you don't get to do very

often.

EVELYN ELLIS: The Shaw Society was founded in 1941 which was

Shaw's 86th birthday was a gentleman called Dr Fritz

Lowenstein. And it was his idea to start a Shaw Society. It was

put together really just to keep his memory going.

I mean, he was still writing plays in his eighties and in his

nineties and he was a bit suspicious about this idea. He

didn't want to be [Sic: idolized] and he didn't-

It didn't strike him as being a great idea, but he sanctioned it

and he wrote us a very funny letter. This is what Shaw said.

The Browning Society was a terror to Browning. Shelley was

dead. Shakespeare was dead. I shall soon be dead. We all

provided a rallying point for the cooperation and education of

kindred spirits and a forum for their irreconcilable

controversies.

So he says, so go ahead. But don't bother me about it.

I'm old, deaf and dotty. In short, a has been.

He knew that anybody who followed him is not going to be

straightforward. Everybody is very individual and there's a

lot of discussion goes on shall we say!

When I first joined, they were very political. It was very much

based on the Fabian society and politics.

And then bit by bit, we got a lot of theatre directors. So

we're working more towards the theatre side.

And now with these young actors, of course, now it's suddenly

becoming performance based. And so that's even more exciting.

It's adaptable, the Shaw Society, I think. And it's

benefiting from new influx of completely new people coming

in. [

GENERIC: Sound of theatrical performance] I remember the

evening when I sat here at your feet and read you those poems

for the first time.

I Shouldn't have let you. I see that now.

EVELYN ELLIS: Today we're doing a very short play called How He

lied to her husband. The characters don't actually have

names. There's her and him and her husband. [

GENERIC: Sound of theatrical performance] You'll soon find

out how much less than nothing she is. If you don't think a

woman can't do any harm because she's only a scandal-

JOE SARGEANT: My name's Joe Sargeant and I'm an actor. [

GENERIC: Sound of theatrical performance] If I were going to

the stake with you, I should still be so happy with you that

I could hardly feel your danger more than my own.

JOE SARGEANT: Very early this year I performed the orderly in

a play called Press Cuttings. And it's the most farcical

character in something that's already very silly. I don't get

much opportunity to play the, the the clown. So I think that's

probably my favourite part yeah.

EVELYN ELLIS: There's no division between the ages. We

seem to mingle very well. I think probably because the young

people who come into the Shaw Society they've already learnt

to think for themselves. And therefore I think they seem to

respect maturity just as much as youth and it just satisfies a

need that they've got.

We've now got about 30 young actors who've joined just for

the pleasure of reading Shaw aloud. [

GENERIC: Sound of theatrical performance] Song before

sunrise.

Nothing would do me then. But I must reel off a set of songs to

sunrise.

EVELYN ELLIS: If we didn't have Shaw's Corner there, we wouldn't

really have an anchor.

We get so much information feeding back and there's so much

studying going on there as well.

A lot of the expertise that we have about Shaw comes through

Shaw's Corner and through the National Trust and Sue Morgan,

who's the curator there at the moment is very much part of the

Shaw Society as well.

We look on her as being our guardian angel.

When Shaw comes out of copyright in 2020 I think that'll make a

lot of opportunities for Shaw plays to be put on.

It'll be much freer and less expensive. The more that they

can put Shaw across, the better it'll be for Shaw's Corner. I'm

sure.

I think there's a lot of enthusiasm. There's a lot of

people waiting for that day to dawn.

JAMES GRASBY: Thanks for listening to this week's mini

episode. Our next full episode will be available in a couple of

weeks, but there'll be another mini episode available next week

where we'll be meeting up with theatre producer Michael Friend

to hear about his love affair with Shaw's plays.

So until then from me, James Grasby, goodbye.