Man and Superman (Penguin Classics)
How tantalizing to hear Ralph Fiennes (The English Patient,Schindler's  List) but not be able to see him! And hear him one does in his  role as Jack Tanner, the antihero of Shaw's 1905 classic dramaMan  and Superman. Fiennes is a veritable mouthpiece--and a frequently  sarcastic one at that--for the burning issues on Shaw's philosophical  and social laundry list: the state of the English working class, the  arms race, women's rights, unwed mothers, the evils of industry and  capitalism, and English morality in general. The seriousness of the  discussions is tempered by delightful Shavian wit ("There are two  tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart's desire. The other is to  gain it."), which prevents the dialogue from collapsing under its  own weight, although it does teeter at times. The four-act play,  directed by the esteemed Peter Hall for BBC Radio, begins in the  English countryside and ends in the mountains of Spain after a curious  detour to Hell, where, in act 3, the famous dream sequence unfolds and  the main characters take on such roles as Don Juan and the Devil to  further hash out the meaning of existence, the definition of life  force, and the power of the female sex. This is a spirited production  of Shaw's imperfect but intellectually challenging work.(Running  time: 225 min; four cassettes)--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.