Heartbreak House

Heartbreak House
Written byGeorge Bernard Shaw
Date premieredNovember 1920
Place premieredGarrick Theatre, New York
Original languageEnglish
SubjectA dinner party at an eccentric household during World War I
GenreChekhovian tragicomedy
SettingEngland, World War I

Heartbreak House: A Fantasia in the Russian Manner on English Themes is a play written by Bernard Shaw during the First World War, published in 1919 and first performed in November 1920 at the Garrick Theatre, New York, followed by a West End production the following year.

The play reflects Shaw's disillusion with post-war Britain. It contrasts cultured but self-absorbed and politically irresponsible people on the one hand and aggressive philistines on the other. Heartbreak House contains a self-mocking depiction of Shaw himself in the central character, Captain Shotover.

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