The Traveller without Luggage

Summary

1959 Associated Television production of Le voyageur sans bagage by Jean Anouilh, under the title The Traveller without Luggage.

Theatre play

Traveller without Luggage [Le voyageur sans bagage] by Jean Anouilh (1910-1987) [more information]

Play synopsis

Gaston, a veteran of WWI, suffers from amnesia and has been in an institution for eighteen years. He is claimed as a son by various families. A rich Duchess believes he belongs to the Renauds. Gaston travels to the Renauds’ estate with lawyer Huspar. A docile character, Gaston discovers that he is actually Jacques Renaud, a violent young man who used to kill animals for sport, who pushed his best friend, Marcel, down a flight of stairs, breaking his back, shortly after witnessing him kissing the maid Juliette, with whom Jacques had been intimate. He has difficulty reconciling his current personality with that of his past. His brother’s wife, Valentine, with whom he had an affair, proves that he must be Jacques by telling him about a scar he has. Soon thereafter, numerous families arrive searching for their lost loved one from the war. Gaston spots a young boy, the only surviving member of the Madensales. Gaston fabricates a story about the scar and leaves the Renauds to become a member of this boy’s family, later writing a letter to Jacques’s brother stating that Jacques is dead. Adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_voyageur_sans_bagage.

Production history

Dated to 1937.

Date of transmission

Tuesday 13 October 1959

Series

Play of the Week

Channel

ITV

Production company

Associated Television (ATV, 1955-1982)

Credits

Director

Casper Wrede

Playwright

Jean Anouilh (1910-1987)

Adapted for Television by

Casper Wrede

Translator

John Whiting (1917-1963)

Sets / Settings

Richard Negri

Cast

Geoffrey Bayldon	Butler
Diana Churchill	Duchesse Dupont-Dufort
Vernon Dobtcheff	Maitre Huspar
Vivienne Drummond	Velentine Renaud
Gordon Gostelow	Valet
Michael Gough	Georges Renaud
Arthur Goullet	Chauffeur
Barry Henderson	Small Boy
George Howe	Maitre Picwick
Keith Michell	Gaston
Olive Milbourne	Cook
Dorothea Phillips	Juliette
Valerie Taylor	Madame Renaud

Additional details

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

First World War, as theme or setting; French drama

Print sources

Title

TV Times, 9 October 1959 (Magazine)

Linking notes

article, p. 16; listing, p. 37