Major Barbara

In a cozy January evening, the drama opens in the well‑appointed library of Lady Britomart Undershaft. The matriarch, a formidable yet oddly tender figure, summons her son Stephen—a freshly graduated, slightly nervous young man—to a serious conversation. Their exchange crackles with wit and tension, revealing a household balanced on the edge of propriety and hidden anxieties.

Lady Britomart confides that the family’s affairs have become too heavy for her alone, urging Stephen to step into a role he has long avoided. The discussion turns to the enigmatic figure of their father, a powerful industrialist whose influence looms over the sisters’ futures and the family’s moral compass. As Stephen grapples with his own uncertainties, listeners are drawn into a world where personal ambition, social duty, and questions of right and wrong begin to collide, setting the stage for the spirited debates that define the play.