Shaw's first play, Bury the Dead (1936) is a fantasy in which dead American soldiers rise up and refuse burial. Failing to talk the soldiers into passively accepting their destiny, several officers order the machine-gunning of these reluctant heroes. The play anticipates the conflict in The Young Lions between the haves who go to war with many privileges and little risk and the have-nots who go to war with few privileges and much risk.

The Assassin (1946) is a play about the potential of the ordinary man for heroism. Robert de Mauny, the central character, is drawn into a plot to assassinate a fascist admiral. Like Michael Whitacre, de Mauny is superficial and spoiled; full of bravado and confident of his invulnerability, he volunteers for a mission whose dangers he does not comprehend. To his credit, he continues even when the risks become obvious and the odds against...