The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1922-02-05
F. B. Shap's Back
to MethuSeIah' to
Be Presented Here
Theater Guild Will Produce
Play in Three Sections Be-
ginning February 27.

~SAS
oliver Wendell Holmes used to tell
how In his boyhood he noticed that very
ole people seemed to shrink in size,
which caused him to visualize Methuse-
lab as very tiny man indeed. Meeting
HIM, he would inquire:
How do you do, Mr. Methuselah?"
To which the old gentleman would
answer: Pretty well. Oliver only my
shoestrings get in my eyes and bother
me-"
But G.. G. Shaw has none of that in
the future world he depicts in Back to
Methuselah." which the Theater Guild
will begin producing on February 81 at
the Garrick. Shaw proposes to lengthen
the span of human life first to three
Hundred years and then indefinitely, but
to do it by creative evolution-that is.
by an evolution controlled by the desires
and volitions of man himself Nobody,
OF course, desires to shrink, together till
+ Is shoestrings tickle his eyes. On the
contrary, we have met several small men
In our time whose idea Of creative evo-
luton would be to grow into giants of
six foot six. We knew q small man
onco who told big policeman that he
wished he. too, were a giant.
why do you want to be as big as
ne?" the cop asked
so could lick some folks I know"
Poo; IL you was as big as me you
wouldn't want to lick 'em," the officer
retorted.
AS Shaws play plunges further and
further into the future, the life span of
his characters grows longer and longer.
TIL at last nothing but accident or sui
eide ends life. The people, however.
seem neither to increase or diminish in
s!ze-which, to be sure, may be due to
n Chax H..
somebody would be rash enough to put
the play on, in which case human actors
would have to assume the roles. The
real reason Shaw wants us to live longer,
however, Is that we may outgrow our
childishness. He does not for a moment
admit that at the present time we put
away childish things upon becoming
men. Our wars and imperialisms, our
Greeds and governments are the essence
OF unreasonable childhood. If we want
better world. better order Of society,
says Shaw in this play. the only way
to get it is to abandon our Darwinian
fatalism, our waiting for natural selec-
tlon' to bring about the divine. far
off event." and take a hand ourselves in
the process of evolution. By right liv-
ing and hard willing we might increase
our life span to 800 years and thus live
long enough to grow up, get sense into
our heads and govern ourselves like in
telligent beings.
Or course to show first how death
came into the world in the Garden of
Eden and then to come down through
the present and far into the future, to
the year 1890, is something of a joo
for one play. Shaw has accordingly
made his play so long it has to be acted
In three sections. The Guild will begin
with the Garden of Eden on February
2, and show that for a week. The sec
end week, beginning March 6. they will
act the second part Of the play. The
third week they act the last section.
Then they begin over again. You will
buy three tickets in a bunch to witness
the drama and use one of them each
week for three consecutive weeks. But
what is that if you learn how to live
SEQ years?