About the book: 1980 / This “light play for a small theater,” as the author called it in the subtitle, was first staged on April 19, 1911 on stage “ Little Teater.” Since then it has been performed several times by various English theaters. In New York, it was first performed by actors of the Comedy Theater on September 16, 1912. On the stage of London theaters, the comedy appeared as the work of an anonymous author. Shaw hid his name until 1914, when the play was published. In the play, Shaw settles scores with his literary opponents. Having turned comedy into a springboard for the fight against conservative criticism hostile to him, the playwright, at the same time, in the spirit of “self-irony”, gives a skeptical assessment of his own activities. Such a plan required a rather complex dramatic structure, like a “play within a play.” This principle of dramatic construction created the opportunity to consider “Fanny’s play” - a work of Bernard Shaw’s school - from different angles. Afterword to the play - A. S. RommNotes to the play - A. N. Nikolyukin