Our House

John Lahr, theatre critic for The New Yorker, doesn't like the latest Broadway production of George Bernard Shaw's Heartbreak House. (It's been produced about every 20 years since the original Theatre Guild production in 1920.) In fact, he doesn't like the play. Fine. But what about this: "The play, largely conceived before the First World War, prophesies the jolt to come."

Shaw was a playwright, not a clairvoyant. Yes, he conceived of the play before WWI, but he wrote it mostly during the War and didn't allow it to be presented until the War was over.