The Millionairess

The Millionairess
by Bernard Shaw

I am the most interesting woman in England.

In Shaw’s preface to this play, entitled “Preface on Bosses”, he begins by saying that the play “does not pretend to be anything more than a comedy of humorous and curious contemporary characters.” He then quickly admits that it does more than that. It raises a question “that has troubled human life and moulded human society since the creation.” That question being: what is to be done with the natural boss? Those sometimes dangerous people who simply possess the ability to lead and who we naturally want to follow? As Shaw writes, “They are irresistible unless they are restrained by law; for ordinary individuals are helpless in their hands. Are they to be the masters of society of its servants? … The same mysterious personal force that makes the household tyrant, the school tyrant, the office tyrant, the brigand chief and the pirate captain, brings the born boss to the top by a gravitation that ordinary people cannot resist.”

In the case of this play, the born boss in question is Epifania Ognisanti di Parerga – a spoiled, immensely wealthy and recently single woman who describes herself as “a woman who must always want something and always get it.” She begins the play unhappily married to a boxer/tennis player (a nod to Shaw’s love of the sport of boxing) – a man she married mostly because she was attracted to his physical power. But also because he passed her father’s sure-fire test of any man. The test she promised to her father on his deathbed that she would make any man pass before she married him. But he has now deserted her for another woman, and while she still has other men in her life, she cannot find her equal.

It is only when Epifania meets Ahmed el Kabir, an Egyptian doctor, that sparks truly fly. He is smart and not the least impressed by her money or overwhelmed by her powerful personality. It seems that she has finally met her match. But he, like every other man she meets, must submit to her father’s test. She tells him that whomever she wishes to marry has to prove they can turn £500 into £15,000 within six months. He agrees to submit to this test but in a surprise turn, he has his own test for her, passed on to him by his beloved mother. Epifania must prove that she can support herself for six months beginning with only 35 pence. Accepting the challenge Epifania sets out to live her life as a pauper (but that doesn’t last too long) and win her Doctor’s heart.

Described by the Washington Post as “restless, demanding and so ruthlessly capable that she takes over everything from conversations to struggling businesses”, Epifania has been attracting leading ladies from its acclaimed London premiere starring Katherine Hepburn in 1936 to the 1960 film with Sophia Loren. Last seen at the Shaw Festival in 2001, this production is directed by Blair Williams and features Nicole Underhay as Epifania, Kevin Hanchard as the Doctor and Kevin Bundy as Sagamore, her solicitor.