Prison without Bars

Summary: 1947 BBC studio production of Peggy Barwell’s play Prison without Bars, set in a girls’ reformatory, which was adapted from a German play by Gina Kaus and Otto Edgar Eis.
Theatre play: Prison without Bars by Peggy Barwell [more information]
Play synopsis: An adaptation of a play by Gina Kaus and Otto Edgar Eis, from an original idea by Hilde Koveloff. ‘Prison Without Bars tells the story of a girls’ reformatory and what happens when a new superintendent comes to change the harshness of the old regime. Jill Esmond is playing this part, and Sebastian Shaw that of the young doctor with whom Nova Pilbeam, as one of the reformatory’s occupants, falls in love’ (Radio Times billing, 21 July 1939, p. 19).
Production history: The play was presented for a week each at the ‘Q’ Theatre and then the Embassy Theatre, London from 1 May 1939.
Date of transmission: Sunday 20 April 1947
Time: 8.30-10.15pm
Channel: BBC Television
Production company: BBC

Producer

Harold Clayton

Playwright

Peggy Barwell (adapted Kaus and Eis’ play)

Original Play by

Otto Edgar Eis

Original Play by

Gina Kaus

Cast

Title: Radio Times, 18 April 1947 (Magazine)
Linking notes: listing, p. 23; article by The Scanner, ‘How a Play was Born’, p. 4

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