Village Wooing

Village Wooing, A Comedietta for Two Voices is a play by George Bernard Shaw, written in 1933 and first performed in 1934. It has only two characters, hence the subtitle "a comedietta for two voices". The first scene takes place aboard a liner, and the second in a village shop. The characters are known only as "A" and "Z".

First conversation: On a cruise liner, A, an aesthetic young man, is writing. Z, a young woman, appears and tries to engage him in conversation, which he resists. He explains that he is writing about the cruise for the "Marco Polo Series of Chatty Guide Books". Z asks whether she will be included in his account of it, and replies that she will. She says she is thrilled, but must now give an account of herself, explaining that her father was a man of letters, as he was a postman.

Second conversation: In a village shop, A enters. He is served by Z, but does not recognise her. He gets into a conversation with her, and talks about having met a persistent woman on a cruise. Z asks him to tell her more about this woman. She eventually persuades him to buy the shop.

Third conversation: In the village shop again, A is now the owner of the shop, and is working on writing a checklist of reasons for staying there. Z argues with him about whether he is a shopkeeper or a poet. Eventually the pair decide they ought to be married. Z phones the church to make the arrangements. The play ends as she is about to tell the church their names.

The play was first performed on 16 April 1934 in Dallas, Texas, by the Little Theatre Company. Two weeks later, on 1 May, it was produced for the first time in England by the Wells Repertory Players, at Tunbridge Wells with Christopher Fry as A. Sybil Thorndike and Arthur Wontner gave the first London performance some months later at the Little Theatre in the Adelphi.

Village Wooing was first shown on television in 1952 with Michael Golden as "A" and Ellen Pollock as "Z". There was an ITV version in 1979 starring Judi Dench and Richard Briers.

There was also an Australian version filmed for TV in 1962 starring Michael Denison and Dulcie Gray.

SHAW2020 theatre company produced Village Wooing in 2021/22. It won a 'Standing Ovation' award from London Pub Theatres Magazine, 'Best Show' and 'Best Performance' [Maryann O'Brien] at The Birmingham Fringe Festival and was a finalist for an OffFest award at The Offies in 2022. Judi Dench said, "It’s wonderful to see SHAW2020 continue to thrive as shown by this industry recognition. I wish their production continued success."