Public Hall, Croydon

The Croydon Times, 17 November 1928, advertised The Croydon Players in Shaw’s ‘How He Lied To Her Husband’ and ‘The Showing-up Of Blanco Posnet’ at the Public Hall, Croydon, on Wednesday and Thursday, 21 and 22 November. ‘Two plays by George Bernard Shaw formed the programme which the Croydon Players gave to crowded audiences at the Public Hall, Croydon, on Wednesday and Thursday evenings. The chief attraction was the performing of “The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet,” a sermon in crude melodrama, which was banned by the Lord Chamberlain in 1904. Shaw is far from his best in this play, his attempt to plant a strong moral in the minds of his audience being defeated by his own construction of the play. Instead of following the undercurrent of the play, which is full of symbolism, the audience’s attention is directed to the trial of a horse-thief, and the chief interest is whether he will be lynched or not. “G.B.S.” has cloaked his moral lesson in too heavy a drama and except for well-written foreword on the Players programme, the problem of a soul in revolt would have been entirely ignored by the audience' (Croydon Times, 24 November 1928). Reviewed in The Stage, 29 November 1928, and The Era, 12 December 1928.