No Time for Comedy

Summary

1959 Associated Television production for ITV of No Time for Comedy by S. N. Behrman.

Theatre play

No Time for Comedy by S. N. [Samuel Nathaniel] Behrman (1893-1973) [more information]

Play synopsis

The play is ‘drawn in the shape of a triangle. A writer of expert comedy, married to an actress who appears in his plays, has fallen into the hands of a meddlesome woman who specializes in bringing out the latent possibilities of clever young men. She persuades him that this is no time for comedy; she purrs him into writing something about immortality with a few topical echoes of the Spanish revolt. But his wife is still in love with him, and sufficiently realistic to distinguish between philandering and profundity. All Mr. Behrman sets out to do, as a writer of comedy, is to resolve the triangle into the shape of the usual drawing-room conversation with the usual turns of phrase and plot circumlocutions.' Source: http://www.snbehrman.com/productions/plays/reviews/NTC1_times.htm.

Production history

'S. N. Behrman’s play opened on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on April 17, 1939 and ran for 179 performances. The cast included Laurence Olivier as Gaylord Esterbrook and Katharine Cornell as Linda Paige, and was directed by Cornell’s husband Guthrie McClintic.' Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Time_for_Comedy.

Date of transmission

Tuesday 3 February 1959

Time

8.30-10.00pm

Series

Play of the Week

Channel

ITV

Production company

Associated Television (ATV, 1955-1982)

Credits

Director

Bernard Braden

Playwright

S. N. [Samuel Nathaniel] Behrman (1893-1973)

Sets / Settings

Hutchinson Scott

Cast

Michael Blakemore	Makepeace ‘Pym’ Lovell
Helen Cherry	Amanda Smith
Richard Cuthbert	Robert
Barbara Kelly	Linda Easterbrook
John Merivale	Gaylord Easterbrook
John Robinson	Philo Smith
Ida Shepley	Clementine

Additional details

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

comedy; poetry and literature, as theme; theatre or acting, as theme

Print sources

Title

TV Times, 30 January 1959 (Magazine)

Linking notes

article, p. 16; listing, p. 29