Although an evening of Shaw can hardly be unrewarding, the Brattle Theatre Company's treatment of two Shavian pieces is an uneven one, and decidedly not up to the potentialities of that group. The selections, however, were happy ones. The scene of Don Juan in Hell from "Man and Superman" gives us Shaw, the serious and at once entertaining critic of society, presenting his provocative cosmology. "The Millionaires" is a farcical treatment of this same cosmology. In both, Shaw's gifts for coining paradoxes and his penetration are at their best.

Don Juan in Hell presents Shaw's view of what life is all about, through the eyes of his seemingly incongrous spokesman, Don Juan. Shaw's Hell is the fulfilment of the senses; Heaven is the fulfilment of the mind. Thus, Heaven, as Dona Ana's father discovers, is a great bore to all but the men of genius whom the Life Force urges to greater and greater heights of self-knowledge and desire to improve the lot of humanity. In Hell, however, the conventional and dutiful are quite at home. The ephemeral, which they have sought before death, is in great abundance.

This paradox confronts the recent arrival, Dona Ana, who, as legend has it, retained her virtue at the expense of her father who was killed by Juan in a duel over the attempted seduction. Don Juan, a veteran in Hell, is seen to have profited by his earthly satiation with the life of the senses, and he is prepared to visit Heaven to achieve self-fulfilment. In analysis, it may be hard to see how this idea could ever be interesting in dramatic form. But the sparkling prose of the philosophic discussions is delightful for its wit, its audacity and its insight.

It was also a challenge to the actors, who met it only middling well. Robert Fletcher, for the most part, had sufficient vitality for his part as Don Juan. The star, however, was not impressive. In her unwillingness, as Dona Ana, to accept the kind of Hell and Heaven she finds, Claire Luce succeeds only in being unpleasant. Jerry Kilty, as Dona Ana's father, fully appreciated the humor of his part, as Miss Luce did not. The ministerial quality of Donald Stevens, as the devil, made his performance interesting, but he had little variety.

In "The Millionaires", the idea is similar, but this two-act play covers much less ground than "Man and Superman," which has something to say about almost everything. Both plays deal with the affirmative man, who is in this case, an Egyptian doctor. This time, the Hell is on earth, and in the pursuit of its pleasures are a wealthy restless millionaires, her puerile sportsman of a husband, and their respective lovers. In the end, the millionaires finds a purpose for the power of money which she and her father have been accumulating for its own sake, in the doctor whom she resolves to marry as the play closes.

Miss Luce was much more satisfactory as the millionaires, and the Brattle Company supported her very well, with the exception of Fletcher whose mugging was rather amateurish. Jan Farrand and Peter Temple, on the other hand, were very pleasing, and on the whole, the actors were energetic and witty.

In spite of its limitations, "An Evening of Shaw" is still worth seeing. The production is competent, if not greatly inspired; and Shaw, competently rendered, is a treat in itself.