Major Barbara

In George Bernard Shaw's incendiary play, the devout Major Barbara Undershaft, a beacon of the Salvation Army, confronts her estranged father, Andrew—a charming, amoral titan of the armaments industry. Barbara recoils from his "ill-gotten" wealth, a fortune built on instruments of death. Yet, her father's cynical generosity, lavishing funds upon the very institution she serves, forces a shattering re-evaluation of her ideals. As Andrew deftly argues that poverty is the true root of all evil, and that his cannons, paradoxically, bring order and employment, Barbara's faith in spiritual salvation clashes violently with the pragmatic, if brutal, realities of worldly power and wealth. Shaw stages a magnificent intellectual duel, where the lines between good and evil, charity and commerce, are gloriously, provocatively blurred.