Bluecoat School, Nottingham

‘There was plenty of fun, frolic and typical Shavian philosophy in last night’s programme by the Nottingham Theatre Club when three of Bernard Shaw’s one-act plays were shown in the Blue Coat School Hall. It was something new for the club to put on a bill of this kind instead of one full-length production, and the change, despite all the extra work involved, appeared well worth while. The first play, “The Man of Destiny,” produced by Alan Stabell, was rather longer than the average one-acter … Albert Appleton, producer of “The Showing-up of Blanco Posnet,” showed great skill in the handling of his crowd scenes on the small stage and in keeping their agitation well within bounds ... The climax of the evening was “Passion, Poison and Petrifaction” or “The Fatal Gazogene”’ (Nottingham Journal, 2 November 1950). ‘“This little play,” writes G.B.S. in his preface to “Blanco Posnet, “is really a religious tract in dramatic form.” It is a strange, difficult, confusing play, of which I personally find it very difficult to say anything. Having seen it now for the first time I should say that the religious tract quality is rather greater than the dramatic. It was not I think, the fault of Albert Appleton’s production that the characters never seemed real and that the dialogue sounded artificial' (Nottingham Journal, 6 November 1950).