The Insect Play

Summary: 1939 BBC studio production of Karel and Josef Capek’s fantasy The Insect Play.
Theatre play: The Insect Play [Ze ivota hmyzu] by Karel apek and Josef apek [more information]
Play synopsis: 'A satire in which insects stand in for various human characteristics: the flighty, vain butterfly, the obsequious, self-serving dung beetle.' Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karel_%C4%8Capek.
Production history: Dated to 1921.
Date of transmission: Tuesday 30 May 1939
Time: 9.00-10.30pm
Channel: BBC Television
Production company: BBC

Producer

Stephen Thomas

Adapted for the Stage by

Clifford Bax (1886-1962)

Adapted for the Stage by

Playwright

Playwright

Translator

Music

Conductor

Orchestra Led by

Sets / Settings

Costume Designer

Choreographer

Cast

Bruce Adams	Signal Officer
Douglas Allen	Messenger
Charlotte Bidmead
Frank Birch	Mr Beetle / Commander of the Yellows
John Boxer	Second Engineer
Rupert Bruce Lockhart	Ichneumon Fly Inventor
Celia Franks
Wilfred Franks	Blind Ant Timekeeper
Leslie French	Mr Cricket Second Snail
Ann Gee
Wilfred Grantham	Lepidopterist / First Snail
Elizabeth Hamilton
Mary Hatton
George Hayes	Chief Engineer
Sheila Kay	Larva
Anthony Kelly
Hugh Laing
Thérèse Langfield
Maire O’Neill	Mrs Beetle / Philanthropist
Charles Peters	Robber Beetle / Journalist
Alan Raysman
Susan Reeves
Brenda Seth
Belinda Smith
Pamela Standish	Chrysalis
Wendy Toye	Mrs Cricket
Edmund Willard	Tramp
Geoffrey Wincott	Parasite

Origination: Live from studio
Vision original: Monochrome
Later transmissions: Presented again at 3.00pm on Wednesday 7 June and 9.10pm on Monday 12 June 1939.
Notes: 'Karel Capek wrote The Insect Play in 1921. Unfortunately it is not a bit out of date in 1939. The conflict of the ants is still a fair representation
of Europe seen through the wrong end of a telescope’ ('The Scanner’, Radio Times, 12 May 1939, p. 16).
Extant status: No archival copy is known to exist.
Play tags: Czech drama

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