G.B.Shaw (Irish playwright) was a freethinker, a supporter of women's rights and an advocate of equality of income.

His main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60 plays. Shaw's plays, like those of Oscar Wilde, contained incisive humour, which was exceptional among playwrights of the Victorian era; both authors are remembered for their comedies. Shaw is the only person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize in Literature (1925) and an Oscar (1938), for his contributions to literature and for his work on the film Pygmalion (adaptation of his play of the same name). Shaw wanted to refuse his Nobel Prize outright because he had no desire for public honours. Caesar and Cleopatra is a play written in 1898, first staged in 1901 and first published with Captain Brassbound's Conversion and The Devil's Disciple in his collection, Three Plays for Puritans. The fact that W.Shakespeare wrote Antony and Cleopatra in 1598 and Shaw 300 years later, should be a solid argument for the different versions of the two plays. We are confronted with two distinct philosophies and this distinction is well seen in the description of Caesar. Shakespeare was an Elizabethan. He was a profound pessimist due to the times he lived in. Therefore, he created a pessimistic, a disillusioned Caesar because he knew well human weakness, but not human strenght. Mention the name of Cleopatra and the image conjured is usually one of a seductive womanhood: the queen of Egypt, her stunning and dangerous beauty that charmed Mark Anthony and thereby changing the world's history. Indeed, the romance of Anthony and Cleopatra has haunted our cultural consciousness since well before Shakespeare immortalized it in his work. That Cleopatra also had a relationship with Julius Caesar, one which might have had as many implications as her more famous one, is usually forgotten. But George Bernard Shaw did not forget it, and in his play Caesar and Cleopatra he explodes both the myth that Cleopatra was always and only influenced by Antony and, in some ways more surprisingly, the conceit that she was always a mature woman. As the Resonance Ensemble's new production definitively demonstrates, Cleopatra was once a young girlone who had to grow up very quickly (The prologue, introduced by the God Ra is meant to show a man of genius : Julius Caesar, set in the light of those respected times. Shaw's play follows the arrival of Caesar in Egypt in search of overdue tributebut instead of a resistant populace united behind one ruler, what he instead finds is a highly chaotic and divided political situation, with some supporting the young Ptolemy, heavily influenced and controlled by his guardian Pothinus, and others supporting his older sister Cleopatra, in turn influenced and controlled by her nurse Ftatateeta. Caesar's discovery of the young Cleopatra leads to a growing relationship with her, one characterized more by political instruction than physical intimacy. . .and by the time the play ends, both Cleopatra and Caesar have grown from their experience as much as the bonds between Egypt and Rome. ) Shaw says that Caesars way is the only way, which means that the way without punishment or revenge is the key to some kind of humanity progress. For example, when in

Egypt, Rufio refers to the egyptians as their prisoners, Caesar corrects him and calling them guests. Four murders are essential to this play and Caesars reaction is crucial : Pothinuss;earlier mentioned in the play :the head of Pompey by Lucius Septimius and Caesars reaction : Am I Julius Caesar, or am I a wolf?Ftatateetas killed by Rufio Caesars reaction :On my head be it, then; for it was well done.Ptolemys Cleopatra is thought to have killed herself. The legend is that she killed herself by putting an asp to her breast. After Cleopatra, the last phraoh of Egypt, Egypt became just another province of Rome. This gives Shakespeare the opprtunity to create a specific shakesperian end to this play , very alike to his Romeo and Juliet .In Shaws version, Caesar leaves Egypt after naming Rufio the governor . Caesar nevertheless, impervious to jealousy, makes Cleopatra happy by promising to send Mark Anthony back to Egypt. (In Shaw's plays, paradox is the most important comical device.Shaw's reinterpretation of history: Shaw's historical plays deglamorize history, underlining the discrepancy between the legend surrounding historical personalities and the reality that lies beneath the "myth". The technique of reversal functions with great comic effect when applied to famous historical characters like Caesar and Cleopatra. Caesar, far from being a heroic figure, is seen by Cleopatra as an elderly gentleman, who cannot scare even a girl. What is even funnier, he is told by a girl (for that is Cleopatra's image in Shaw's play) how to govern: "You are very sentimental, Caesar; but you are clever; and if you do as I tell you, you will soon learn to govern".) Both Shaw and Shakespeare brought their personalities to bear upon the character of Cleopatra. Shaw did not glorify women as Shakespeare did in his plays. Shaws vision was a limited one, in that he disliked Womanly woman and preferred the New woman. Cleopatras alliance with the emperors of Rome was more a political necessity than a sensual abandon. But when all is said, we have a feeling that her true character is hidden behind a tangle of tales.) Shaws puritanism in contrast with Shakespeares romanticism. (While Shakespeares Cleopatra is a tragic Character, Shaws Cleopatra is a comic portraiture. Shakespeares Cleopatra does not undertake a mission of independence as Shaws Cleopatra does. Shakespeares Cleopatra will always be more popular than Shaws. Shaws Cleopatra is childish, while Shakespeares Cleopatra is a full-blown, mature woman. Shakespeares Cleopatra has a sense of honour and heroism as opposed to the timidity verging on the borders of cowardice, of Shaws Cleopatra.) In Shaws play, Cleopatra is influenced by the hero, while in Shakespeares Cleopatra influences the hero.The influence of Caesar on Cleopatra is very constructive, while in Shakespeares play Cleopatra leads Antony to his ultimate destruction. Shakespeares Cleopatra evokes the respect and loyalty of her maid-servants, while Shaws Cleopatra is scarcely treated as a queen by her maid-servants. Shaws puritanism and Shakespeares romanticism give an entirely different colouring to the character of Cleopatra. Poetry of the highest order is bestowed

on Shakespeares Cleopatra while colloquial prose is the medium of Shaws Cleopatra. Shakespeares Cleopatra is for all, while Shaws Cleopatra is only for Rome.