Traveller without Luggage

Summary

1965 BBC production of Le voyageur sans bagage by Jean Anouilh, under the title 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

Thursday 25 February 1965

Time

9.15-10.30pm

Series

Thursday Theatre

Channel

BBC2

Production company

BBC

Credits

Director

George R. Foa

Producer

Bernard Hepton

Lighting

Jim Richards

Playwright

Jean Anouilh (1910-1987)

Translator

Lucienne Hill

Musician

Tom McCall (piano)

Designer

John Cooper

Costumes

Joyce Macken

Make-up

Sonia Markham

Script Editor

Rosemary Hill

Cast

Reginald Beckwith	Monsieur Huspar
Madeleine Christie	The Duchess
Clifford Earl	The Chauffeur
Terrence Hardiman	The Valet
Ernest Hare	Mr Truggle
Noël Hood	Madame Renaud
Edna Morris	The Cook
Lana Morris	Valentine Renaud
Michael Newport	Small Boy
Clifford Parrish	Butler
Richard Pasco (1926-)	Gaston
Peter Pratt	Georges Renaud
Margaret Whiting	Juliette

Additional details

Later transmissions

Repeated on BBC2 on Thursday 19 August at 9.20pm.

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

First World War, as theme or setting; French drama

Print sources

Title

Radio Times, 12 August 1965 (Magazine)

Linking notes

brief illustrated article, p. 42; listing, p. 43

Title

Radio Times, 18 February 1965 (Magazine)

Linking notes

illustrated article, p. 48; listing, p. 51