Bernard Shaw Scenes for Two Actors: Arms and the Man, Candida, Pygmalion, and Major Barbara

Your scene-study teacher wants “something with ideas in it,” and your partner suggests Shaw. Good call. Then you open Pygmalion and find that the Higgins and Eliza scene everyone knows runs past fifteen minutes, and that half of it is Higgins talking.

Shaw is one of the best playwrights there is for two actors in a room. His people argue, and they argue to win, so every scene has a clear want, a clear opponent, and a moment where somebody loses. The trouble is that most lists stop at the play’s title. They don’t tell you where the scene starts, who has more to say, or how long it will take.

The short version: below are nine two-person scenes from Arms and the Man, Candida, Pygmalion, and Major Barbara, each with its first and last lines, what each character wants, where the argument turns, how the words split between you, and about how long it runs, plus a shorter cut where you need one. Then there is a plan for rehearsing Shaw’s long, quick-cued speeches. For single speeches instead of scenes, see our guides to Shaw monologues for women and Shaw monologues for men. For more two-handers from every period, start with our acting scripts to practice.

Start with a free text and a stopwatch

Shaw died in 1950, so check the status of any play before you copy it. Project Gutenberg lists Arms and the Man, Candida, Pygmalion, and Major Barbara as public domain in the USA. Every line quoted here was checked against those Gutenberg texts (dashes and quotation marks are styled for the web).

The same plays are in our play library: Arms and the Man, Candida, Pygmalion, and Major Barbara. You and your partner should work from the same edition. A moved comma in Shaw changes where the breath goes, and that changes the cue.

A note on the times. We counted the spoken words in each scene, stage directions out, and divided by 140 words a minute, the pace our acting scripts page uses. Shaw’s dialogue is quick, but his stage business (a chocolate cream, a pair of slippers, a poker) takes time, so a staged run will be longer. If you’re entering a competition, the International Thespian Excellence Awards acting rules define a duet as a performance for two players and cap duet scenes at five minutes. Three scenes and cuts below come in under five minutes by our count, and four more land just over it.

Arms and the Man: three scenes about what bravery is

The play was first produced at the Avenue Theatre in London on 21 April 1894 and published in 1898 in Plays Pleasant, according to the Wikipedia entry on the play. It is a comedy about a romantic young woman, Raina, and a practical Swiss soldier who climbs into her bedroom to escape a battle. Each of its three acts has a strong duet.

Raina and the Man: the chocolate creams (Act 1)

A fugitive soldier has hidden behind Raina’s curtain while a Russian officer searched the room. The script calls him only “the Man” in this act; we learn later that he is Captain Bluntschli. The scene starts as the officer leaves and he thanks her, and it ends with him asleep on her bed while she fetches her mother.

What each wants: he wants to survive the night, and he is too tired to pretend about anything. Raina wants him to see that she is brave, noble, and civilized, and she wants him to admire the man she is engaged to. The turn is a photograph. He has just described a cavalry officer charging like Don Quixote at the windmills, and she shows him the picture of her fiancé. It is the same man.

The full scene runs about 16 minutes, and the Man has about 1.7 words for every one of Raina’s. For class, start at his question about whether it is professional to throw a regiment of cavalry on a battery of machine guns, and run to the moment she calls him a chocolate cream soldier: about 5 and a half minutes. Earlier in the full scene, his pistol turns out to be useless: There’s nothing in it. It’s not loaded. He carries chocolate instead, and she feeds him the last of hers. Play the comedy completely straight. He is not being funny. He is hungry and has not slept.

Sergius and Louka: the higher love (Act 2)

Raina’s fiancé Sergius, the hero of the cavalry charge, has just finished worshipping Raina. She leaves for her hat, and he turns to Louka, the maid. It starts on Louka: do you know what the higher love is? and ends, about 5 minutes later, with Louka holding out her bruised arm to be kissed, and Sergius’s Never! The split is nearly even, and trimming a few lines brings it inside the five-minute competition limit.

What each wants: Sergius wants relief from being noble, and he tells her the higher love is a Very fatiguing thing to keep up for any length of time. Louka wants more than a flirtation behind her mistress’s back. She wants him to treat her as an equal. The turn is the grip: when he hurts her arm and then apologizes, she answers that That sort of apology may satisfy a lady. She wants something a servant is never offered. Agree the grip with your partner, slowly, before you run it at speed.

Raina and Bluntschli: found out (Act 3)

Bluntschli is back, washed and rested, and Raina’s parents have gone off to deal with the regiment’s orders, leaving the two of them alone. It starts on Raina’s You look ever so much nicer than when we last met. and ends on Oh, I wish I had never met you. as Louka brings in his letters. It runs about 7 and a half minutes, split close to evenly.

RAINA: I! I!!! How did you find me out?

BLUNTSCHLI: Instinct, dear young lady. Instinct, and experience of the world.

RAINA: Do you know, you are the first man I ever met who did not take me seriously?

BLUNTSCHLI: You mean, don’t you, that I am the first man that has ever taken you quite seriously?

Source: Bernard Shaw, Arms and the Man, Act 3, Project Gutenberg edition.

What each wants: Raina wants to keep her pose of the noble heroine, and he refuses to believe a word of it. The exchange above is the turn. Inside this exchange, she drops the “thrilling voice” and talks like a person, and then panics about the portrait she left in his coat. For a little over 5 minutes, start at his My dear young lady, don’t let this worry you. and his speech about the two things a soldier hears so often he stops minding them. Her last insults, You have a low, shopkeeping mind. and his That’s the Swiss national character, dear lady. should land like a pair of tennis shots.

Candida: the poet and the clergyman

Shaw wrote Candida in 1894 and published it in Plays Pleasant in 1898. The Wikipedia entry on Candida describes the Reverend James Morell as a Christian Socialist and Eugene Marchbanks as a youthful poet who tries to win Morell’s wife. It also gives away the ending: Candida chooses the one she calls the weaker of the two. Both scenes below are better when you know which one that is.

Morell and Marchbanks: I love your wife (Act 1)

It starts on Morell’s friendly You’ll stay to lunch, Marchbanks, of course. and ends with Marchbanks on his way out the door as Candida comes back. In between, Marchbanks warns Morell he is going to stagger him, and does it in four words: I love your wife. Morell’s first answer is the clue to the whole part: Why, my dear child, of course you do. Everybody loves her: they can’t help it.

What each wants: Marchbanks wants to break Morell’s comfortable faith in his marriage and his preaching, and he picks the weapon on purpose. Morell wants to stay the patient, kindly man of God he believes he is. The turn comes when Marchbanks calls his sermons the gift of the gab, nothing more and nothing less. and Morell, who has kept his temper for pages, orders him out. The whole scene is about 12 and a half minutes, split almost exactly in half. For about 7, start at I must speak to you. and stop at Leave my house. Do you hear?

Candida and Marchbanks: the poker (Act 3)

Morell is out at a meeting. Marchbanks has been reading poetry to Candida for hours, and she has been holding a brass poker and not listening. It starts on his Every poet that ever lived has put that thought into a sonnet. and his complaint that she hasn’t been listening, and ends when Morell lets himself in: I hope I don’t disturb you. It runs under 4 minutes, with an almost exactly even split, which makes it a strong Shaw scene for a competition duet.

What each wants: Marchbanks wants to say the thing he cannot say, and settles for her name: Candida, Candida, Candida, Candida, Candida. Candida wants him to be honest and keep his head, and she steers him as gently as a mother. Her Doesn’t it make you happy to be able to pray? is the turn. He says Yes, very happy. and, when she asks if he wants anything more, No: I have come into heaven, where want is unknown. Play it as the happiest moment in the play, and let the latchkey break it.

Pygmalion: two fights about what Eliza is worth

Pygmalion premiered in Vienna, in German, on 16 October 1913, and reached His Majesty’s Theatre in London on 11 April 1914, with Mrs Patrick Campbell as Eliza and Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Higgins. The Wikipedia entry on Pygmalion also records that Shaw fought against a happy ending that paired Higgins and Eliza, and added a postscript in 1916 to explain why. Play both scenes knowing that. Neither one is a love scene that hasn’t happened yet.

Higgins and Liza: the slippers (Act 4)

It is past midnight after the party where Eliza won Higgins his bet. Pickering has gone to bed, and Higgins, congratulating himself, asks where his slippers are. It starts on What the devil have I done with my slippers? and her There are your slippers. And there. Take your slippers; and may you never have a day’s luck with them! as she throws them at him. It ends with Higgins storming off to bed.

What each wants: Eliza wants him to see what he has done to her, and she keeps asking What’s to become of me? Higgins wants the evening to stay a triumph, his triumph (Presumptuous insect!), and treats her distress as nerves. The turn is I sold flowers. I didn’t sell myself. after he suggests she could marry. The full scene is about 8 minutes, and Higgins has more of the words. For about 5 and a half, stop after his long answer to What else am I to do?

Higgins and Liza: what am I to come back for? (Act 5)

Higgins has tracked Eliza to his mother’s house. The others leave, Eliza tries to slip out, and he gets his back to the door before she reaches it. It starts on Well, Eliza, you’ve had a bit of your own back, and it is one of the two longest duets in this list: about 16 minutes, split almost evenly. It ends on Higgins’s Now you’re a tower of strength: a consort battleship. and his picture of three old bachelors together, just before his mother comes back dressed for the wedding.

What each wants: Higgins wants her back without admitting that he needs her. Eliza wants a little kindness, and when he won’t give it, she wants independence. Her question What am I to come back for? gets the most honest answer he ever gives: For the fun of it. That’s why I took you on. The turn is her threat to teach his methods to his rival (I’ll teach phonetics.), and the moment he stops sneering and starts to admire her.

There are two good cuts. The first stretch, up to Eliza calling him a devil, is about 4 minutes. The second half, from What am I to come back for? to the end, is about 9 and gives Eliza the bigger part.

Major Barbara: the soul and the money

Major Barbara was first produced at the Court Theatre in London in 1905 and published in 1907. In the Wikipedia summary, Barbara is an officer of the Salvation Army, her estranged father Andrew Undershaft is a rich munitions maker, and her fiancé Adolphus Cusins is a scholar of Greek. The second half of the last act takes place in Undershaft’s model town beside his cannon works, and it holds the play’s two best duets.

Undershaft and Barbara: the seven deadly sins (Act 3)

It starts on Barbara’s Before I joined the Salvation Army, I was in my own power. She tells her father that his money has knocked her faith out from under her, then demands that he justify his town. It runs about 4 and a half minutes and ends on The seven deadly sins! and his answer: Yes, the deadly seven. Food, clothing, firing, rent, taxes, respectability and children. Cusins and the family are on stage but say nothing from her first line to his answer, so a class can play it as a duet; cut Barbara’s one aside to her sister Sarah.

What each wants: Barbara wants him to show her some light in what she sees as a dreadful place. Undershaft wants her to scrap the religion that failed her and take up his. The turn is his claim, I save their souls just as I saved yours., and her You saved my soul! What do you mean? Undershaft has most of the words. The challenge for the actor playing Barbara is listening hard enough that her short lines hit.

Barbara and Cusins: the factory of death (Act 3)

The others step away. It starts on Barbara: I am going to accept this offer. and her I thought you would. It ends with her running off to call for her mother. Cusins carries the first half, explaining why he will take over the cannon works. Barbara takes over the second half and tells him what would have happened if he had refused: she would have given him up.

What each wants: Cusins wants her to forgive his choice, and to come with him. Barbara wants somewhere to save souls that can’t be bought with bread, and she has found it in her father’s town. The turn is his question, Then the way of life lies through the factory of death?, and her yes. The full scene runs about 9 and a half minutes. Its last real exchange is a gift, the moment the play lets them be happy: Yes: it is not easy work being in love with me, is it? But it’s good for you.

How to keep a Shaw argument alive

The usual way Shaw’s scenes fail is that they turn into two people reciting essays at each other. The cure is to treat every speech as an answer to the one before it and an attack on the one after. Here is a plan for the week.

• Mark the turn first, the line where one person loses an argument they thought they were winning. Most cuts above keep it; the short opening cut of the Pygmalion Act 5 scene stops before it, so play that one as the build.
• Paraphrase each long speech in one sentence starting with “I want you to.” Higgins’s big speeches become “I want you to stop asking me for things.”
• Learn the last few words of every speech before you, not just your own lines. Shaw’s cues come fast, and the cue is usually the word your character jumps on.
• Run the scene once as fast as you can say it, with no acting at all. Then run it at speed again with full stakes. Shaw at a slow pace sounds like a lecture.
• Keep the business real. A slipper, a chocolate cream, and a poker are each part of the argument. Rehearse with them from the second run.
• Time your cut out loud twice. Reading in your head is usually faster than playing it.

To see who has how many lines in a pasted scene, use our free script line counter. The cue script maker turns your part into lines with their cues, which is the fastest way to drill the ends of your partner’s speeches.

Rehearse it before you meet your partner

The hardest thing about Shaw is the speed of the handoffs. You can’t practice that by reading your own lines, because the timing lives in the other part.

In Offbook, you can upload the whole play as a PDF and pick only the pages of your scene, as the video below shows. Choose your part, and realistic voices read the other one, then wait while you say your line before cueing the next. When you’re close, hide your own lines while your partner’s stay on screen, or switch to first-letter cues for the long speeches.

That way your first rehearsal with your real partner is spent on the argument, not on finding the words. If you just want to warm up, our free run lines online tool rehearses classic scenes and waits for your line, with no account. Our guide on how to prepare a scene for acting class has the week-by-week plan.

Questions actors ask

Is the Raina and Bluntschli scene good for scene study?

Yes, and there are two of them. The Act 1 scene is the famous one, but it runs about 16 minutes and the soldier has most of the words. The Act 3 scene is about 7 and a half minutes, closer to an even split, and asks more of Raina.

What Pygmalion scene works for a man and a woman?

The Act 4 slippers scene is the tightest, at about 8 minutes. The Act 5 scene is longer and more evenly split; its first stretch makes a 4-minute cut that fits a competition duet.

Which Shaw scenes fit a five-minute duet?

Candida and Marchbanks at the start of Candida Act 3 (under 4 minutes), Sergius and Louka in Arms and the Man Act 2 (about 5, trimmed slightly), the opening of the Pygmalion Act 5 scene (about 4), and Undershaft and Barbara in Act 3 (about 4 and a half). Time your own cut, since the rules count the clock, not the words.

Can I rehearse a Shaw scene without my partner?

Yes. Rehearse on your laptop with the full script on a big screen, and Offbook’s voices read your partner’s lines and wait for yours. You can also listen to your scenes on your phone anywhere, which helps you learn the cues.