Shavian

Chesterton suggests them by queer novels and paradoxical essays; Shaw puts his ideas into the mouthpieces of those who are known as Shavian characters; he interprets his theories by the Stage, therefore his sermons reach tens of thousands who would not read him if he preached from a pulpit.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton Patrick Braybrooke

That kind of Shavian subversion -- denying obvious narrative pleasures, whacking attitudes around, demanding that audiences keep up with the sly to-and-fro -- can be delightful.

George Bernard Shaw's 'Misalliance' misses the mark at Olney Theatre Center Nelson Pressley 2010

Light Up the Sky (1948), a rackety farce that Hart pretentiously described as "Shavian," is occasionally revived, but chiefly before the undemanding audiences for dinner theater and summer stock.

Moss Hart Stars in Act Two: A Charmed and Troubled Life 2001

Opening with a full bosomed woman, Grace Tranfield (Rachel Botchan) in a compromising position with a known philanderer Leonard Charteris (Bradford Cover) on a divan, this comedy replete with Shavian tropes on such forward thinking subjects as the sexes, the coy pleasures of friendship vs. marriage, the virtues and joylessness of vegetarianism, the dialogue could have been lifted from the pages of a lifestyle magazine.

Regina Weinreich: Titillation and Tantrums: Shaw's Philanderer at the Pearl Theater Regina Weinreich 2012

Their names become adjectives: Dickensian, Shavian, Kafkaesque.

The Nightmare Of Real Things Sam Sacks 2011

But the complexity of his own world view he opposed British involvement in the war but was himself a power-worshiper with a totalitarian itch who believed passionately in human perfectibility charges what might have been a standard-issue Shavian sermon with the multilayered ambiguity of high art.

Smile as the Bomb Goes Off Terry Teachout 2011

But the complexity of his own world view he opposed British involvement in the war but was himself a power-worshiper with a totalitarian itch who believed passionately in human perfectibility charges what might have been a standard-issue Shavian sermon with the multilayered ambiguity of high art.

Smile as the Bomb Goes Off Terry Teachout 2011

Opening with a full bosomed woman, Grace Tranfield (Rachel Botchan) in a compromising position with a known philanderer Leonard Charteris (Bradford Cover) on a divan, this comedy replete with Shavian tropes on such forward thinking subjects as the sexes, the coy pleasures of friendship vs. marriage, the virtues and joylessness of vegetarianism, the dialogue could have been lifted from the pages of a lifestyle magazine.

Regina Weinreich: Titillation and Tantrums: Shaw's Philanderer at the Pearl Theater Regina Weinreich 2012

Her plays contained Chekhovian echoes, as her friends and colleagues have noted; at least for me, they also evoked a Shavian kind of moral imagination and challenge, but with too much humor, warmth, and regret — too much life — ever to seem formulaic or austere.

More Memories from Martin Brody 2010

After all, conservatives have been on a bender of Shavian wit lately: “You lie!”

The Tea Party's moment of truth 2010