St Simeon Stylites

Summary

1946 BBC live studio production of F. Sladen Smith’s one-act play St Simeon Stylites.

Theatre play

St Simeon Stylites by F. Sladen Smith [more information]

Play synopsis

A one-act play in which ‘all of the action takes place atop a column in the desert, where a grumpy ascetic is visited (via a ladder) by a pilgrim, a king, a woman, and "the Devil and his Friend" ' (source: Jason Jacobs, The Intimate Screen: Early British Television Drama, Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 59).

Production history

Published in Four One-act Plays, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1923.

Date of transmission

Monday 12 August 1946

Time

9.10-9.45pm

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

Harold Clayton

Playwright

F. Sladen Smith

Cast

Joan Carol	Eudocia
Norman Claridge	A King
Leo de Pokorny	His friend
Julian d’Albie	St Simeon Stylites
Geoffrey Edwards	The Devil
Barbara Lott	Procia
Olaf Olsen	Sedulius

Additional details

Origination

Live from studio

Vision original

Monochrome

Later transmissions

Presented again at 9.00pm on Friday 23 August 1946, when the allocated slot lasted one hour.

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

religion, as theme or subject

Print sources

Title

Radio Times, 9 August 1946 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing, p. 25