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A major play in the production of George Bernard Shaw, Heartbreak House reflects his conception of a theatre of commitment: for the betterment of English society, the theatre may reconcile æsthetics and politics, thereby becoming an aim rather than merely a means. By representing the decadence stigmatised by the playwright together with disillusion and improvement, the play establishes a metatheatre where dramatic space proves a metaphor of Shaw’s committed stage, where characters outgrow the limits of illusion by deconstructing their theatrical essence.