Mourning Becomes Electra, Part 1

Summary: 1947 BBC live studio production of Eugene O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra in a shortened adaptation by Harold Clayton, presented in two parts.
Theatre play: Mourning Becomes Electra by Eugene O’Neill [more information]
Play synopsis: Mourning Becomes Electra is a play which retells the story - half legend, half history - of Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, Electra, and Orestes - a story used by the Greek authors of antiquity. It is a play of passion and violence, of a family pursued and destroyed by Fate, of individuals haunted by the shadow of an ancient wrong, unable to escape the consequences of evil and sin. The time is 1865, just before the end of the American Civil War. (Radio Times, 28 March 1947, p. 25)
Production history: Premiered on Braodway at the Guild Theatre on 26 October 1931. Published New York: Liveright, 1931.
Date of transmission: Sunday 30 March 1947
Time: 8.30-10.00pm
Channel: BBC Television
Production company: BBC

Producer

Royston Morley

Playwright

Eugene O’Neill

Adapted for Television by

Harold Clayton

Sets / Settings

Barry Learoyd

Cast

Mark Dignam	Brigadier-General Ezra Mannon
Charles Farrell	Seth Beckwith
Basil Langton	First Lieut. Orin Mannon
Marjorie Mars	Lavinia Mannon
Tucker McGuire	American voice
Ralph Michael	Captain Adam Brandt
Mary Newcombe	Christine Mannon
Aletha Orr	American voice
Macdonald Parke	American voice
Joy Shelton	Hazel Niles
John Stevens	Captain Peter Niles

Origination: Live from studio
Vision original: Monochrome
Later transmissions: The production was revived in 1948, when it was presented on Sunday 11 July at 8.30pm. There was a further television revival of the production at 8.30pm on Sunday 30 March 1952.
Notes: The cast changes for the 1948 revival were as follows: Charles Rolfe (as Seth Beckwith), Kenneth More (Captain Peter Niles) and Andrew Osborn (1st Lieut. Orin Mannon).

In the 1952 revival the cast changes were Catherine Lacey (as Christine Mannon), Patrick Macnee (Captain Peter Niles), Reginald Tate (Captain Adam Grant) and Andrew Osborn (1st Lieut. Orin Mannon).
Extant status: No archival copy is known to exist.
Play tags: American drama; wartime, as theme or setting

Title: Radio Times, 28 March 1952 (Magazine)
Linking notes: listing, p. 42; article by Lionel Hale, ‘A Tempest of a Tragedy’ and photos, p. 41

Title: Radio Times, 9 July 1948 (Magazine)
Linking notes: listing, p. 27, illustrated article by Harold Hobson, ‘O’Neill’s Ennobling Horrors’, p. 24

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