Hypatia, daughter of the newly wealthy underwear manufacturer John Tarleton, is at home with her parents and older brother, entertaining her fiancé Bentley and his father Lord Summerhill, a former governor of a British colonial territory. Their afternoon is interrupted twice: first when an airplane crashes into their roof, carrying Joey Percival and Lina Szczepanowska, a handsome friend of Bentley's and a circus daredevil and acrobat; and then by a disaffected store clerk, who intends to assassinate John Tarleton. Over the course of the summer afternoon, eight proposals of marriage are offered and discussed. Which of them might make a good match, and which a misalliance? Misalliance continues the work of George Bernard Shaw in using satire to explore the nature of marriage, the liberation of women, and the philosophy of familial relationships. It was first performed in London in 1910, and has been run on Broadway and revived multiple times since. George Bernard Shaw (died 1950) was an influential writer of the modernist period. Their work has endured across generations and continues to be read and studied worldwide. The dramatic works of earlier centuries formed the backbone of a rich theatrical tradition. Misalliance was written to be performed as well as read, and its theatrical power remains fully evident on the page, with characters, conflict, and language that leap to life.
