Androcles and the Lion is a 1912 play written by George Bernard Shaw, set in Roman times, about a slave who gets saved from torture by a lion. Shaw writes the play using slapstick humour, verbal wit and physical humour in outlining his themes.
Androcles and the Lion, drama consisting of a prologue and two acts by George Bernard Shaw, performed in Berlin in 1912 and published in 1916. Using the story of Androcles, Shaw examines true and false religious exaltation, combining the traditions of miracle play and Christmas pantomime into a philosophical farce about early Christianity. The play's central theme, recurrent in Shaw's plays, is that one must have something worth dying for--an end outside oneself--to make life worth living.
Androcles and the Lion - Androcles, a Christian fleeing persecution in Rome, befriends a lion after pulling a painful thorn from its paw. Captured by Caesar's men, Androcles is sent to the Colosseum to face the lions along with other Christians. They include Ferrovius, a fierce fighter who rejects forgiveness to slay the lions; Lavinia, a beautiful aristocrat who is determined to die for her faith; and Spintho, who seeks martyrdom but dies accidentally, in a cowardly fashion. Androcles enters the ring to be sacrificed but is recognized and warmly received by the lion that he had helped.
