Mourning Becomes Electra, Part 2

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

Thursday 10 April 1947

Time

8.30-10.00pm

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

Royston Morley

Playwright

Eugene O’Neill

Adapted for Television by

Royston Morley

Designer

Barry Learoyd

Cast

Edward Byrne	Chantyman / Seth Small
Charles Farrell	Seth Beckwith
Willoughby Gray	Ira Mackel
Basil Langton	First Lieut. Orin Mannon
Marjorie Mars	Lavinia Mannon
Ralph Michael	Captain Adam Brandt
Mary Newcombe	Christine Mannon
Macdonald Parke	Amos Ames
Joy Shelton	Hazel Niles
John Stevens	Captain Peter Niles

Additional details

Origination

Live from studio

Vision original

Monochrome

Later transmissions

The production was revived in 1948, when it was presented on Thursday 15 July at 8.30pm. There was a further television revival of the production at 7.30pm on Thursday 3 April 1952.

Notes

The cast changes for the 1948 revival were as follows: Charles Rolfe (as Seth Beckwith), Kenneth More (Captain Peter Niles), Andrew Osborn (1st Lieut. Orin Mannon) and Willoughby Gray (Ira Mackel).

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

Print sources

Title

Radio Times, 28 March 1952 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing, p. 44; article by Lionel Hale, ‘A Tempest of a Tragedy’ and photos, p. 41

Title

Radio Times, 4 April 1947 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing, p. 23

Title

Radio Times, 9 July 1948 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing, p. 27, illustrated article by Harold Hobson, ‘O’Neill’s Ennobling Horrors’, p. 24

Associated programmes

Mourning Becomes Electra, Part 1 (BBC, 1947)
Mourning Becomes Electra by Eugene O’Neill
BBC Television