George Bernard Shaw 
Caesar and Cleopatra 

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) is revered as one of the great British dramatists, credited not only with memorable works, but the revival of the then-suffering English theatre. Shaw was born in Dublin, Ireland, left mostly to his own devices after his mother ran off to London to pursue a musical career. He educated himself for the most part, and eventually worked for a real estate agent. This experience founded in him a concern for social injustices, seeing poverty and general unfairness afoot, and would go on to address this in many of his works. In 1876, Shaw joined his mother in London where he would finally attain literary success. Shaw wrote ‘Caesar and Cleopatra’ in 1898. The play deals with the conflict of love and power, and the value of both, demonstrated in the relationship between Caesar and Cleopatra. ‘Caesar and Cleopatra’ also deals with the idea that advances in technology have not furthered society as a whole; that we are just as we were in generations past.