Shall We Join the Ladies?

Summary: 1939 BBC live studio presentation of J. M. Barrie’s mystery Shall We Join the Ladies?
Theatre play: Shall We Join the Ladies? by J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) [more information]
Play synopsis: 'An absorbing mystery, with just a pinch of incisive English wit to give it the proper savor. The action involves thirteen well-to-do people attending a dinner party. The frivolous and gay air is shattered rather suddenly when the host announces that all of them were at Monte Carlo several years ago on the night when his brother was murdered. Then the host proceeds to implicate one after another of his guests, making them stumble into pits he has carefully laid in his speech. He is cool, patient, and witty as the frightful tension increases and his guests drop their masks.' (Source: Samuel French synopsis, http://www.samuelfrench.com/p/9883/shall-we-join-the-ladies; accessed 18 April 2014.)
Production history: Written for the opening of the theatre of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art on 27 May, 1921. Published by Samuel French.
Date of transmission: Friday 21 April 1939
Time: 9.30-10.15pm
Channel: BBC Television
Production company: BBC

Producer

George More O’Ferrall (1907-1982)

Playwright

James Bridie (1888-1951)

Cast

Origination: Live from studio
Vision original: Monochrome
Later transmissions: Presented again at 3.00pm on Tuesday 25 April 1939.
Notes: 'Technically, Shall We Join the Ladies? is extremely difficult to produce for television, the action being confined to diners seated round a circular table. It will be interesting to see how producer George More O’Ferrall copes with the problem of showing the diner’s faces and not their backs’. (Source: listing, Radio Times, 14 April 1939, p. 14.)
Extant status: No archival copy is known to exist.
Play tags: murder; mystery

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