Widowers' Houses

“Widowers' Houses” is a play by George Bernard Shaw, an Irish playwright who became the leading dramatist of his generation, and in 1925 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.


Widowers' Houses was the first play by George Bernard Shaw to be staged. This is one of three plays Shaw published as Plays Unpleasant in 1898. They were termed "unpleasant" because they were intended, not to entertain their audiences – as the traditional Victorian theatre was expected to – but to raise awareness of social problems and to censure exploitation of the labouring class by the unproductive rich. The other plays in the group are The Philanderer and Mrs. Warren's Profession.