Bernard Shaw's manifold contributions to the Fabian Society are well established in both Shaw criticism and studies of the Fabians. Most works in either category tend to focus on the efforts of a small, core group within the Society's leadership – principally Shaw and the Webbs – to promote a particular vision of socialist reform, although the historical record documents membership that had grown to more than three thousand from 1883 to the start of World War I. Shaw was not the Society's only playwright, moreover, and dramatic activity may have played a more significant role in the Fabians’ endeavours than has been fully appreciated. When we try to establish a broader context for understanding Fabianism and the theatre, however, problems arise that reflect both historiographical and disciplinary issues. Studies of the Victorian and Edwardian theatre do not always take up questions of English political economy, and economic historians sometimes overlook the role of the arts in larger social inquiries. A further challenge is the frustratingly uneven body of available evidence: as historian Margaret Cole notes, the Fabians ‘were not natural archivists’. Records of their endeavours are scattered and spotty. The fact that we have a larger quantity of archived and published writings by Shaw and the Webbs has inevitably skewed the scholarly narratives. We should also regard with scepticism Shaw's notorious pronouncement that his fellow Fabians were ‘philistines’ in artistic matters. As historian Ian Britain has convincingly argued in Fabianism and Culture, Shaw's colleagues were highly involved and accomplished in the arts. Thus, we need to attend closely to what may have occurred around Shaw – or perhaps in spite of him – in order to gain a more balanced view. We should explore more broadly the theatrical interests of the Society, as well as the work of some representative playwrights – either Society members or fellow-travellers – whose thematic concerns can be understood in ‘Fabian’ terms. Indeed, we may be better served by remembering what the Fabian Society's long-serving Secretary and first historian, Edward R. Pease, claimed was one of Sidney Webb's favourite sayings: ‘the activity of the Fabian Society is the sum of the activities of its members’.