Othello [scene]

Summary

1950 BBC presentation of the final scene of Othello performed live and in French by a company from the Comédie Francaise in the studio at Lime Grove. The theatre direction was by René Mathis and the adaptation by Georges Neveux. The broadcast marked the State Visit to Britain of the President of the French Republic.

Theatre play

Othello by William Shakespeare [more information]

Play synopsis

'Othello the Moor, a general employed by the Venetian state, has secretly married Desdemona, a daughter of the senator Brabantio. Iago, an ensign nursing resentment against Othello, enlists the help of Rodorigo, a disappointed suitor of Desdemona. They wake Brabantio in the middle of the night with the news of his daughter’s elopement. Brabantio takes the case to the senate where, learning that she has married Othello of her own accord, he disowns his daughter. Othello is immediately ordered to the Venetian colony of Cyprus to repel a threatened Turkish invasion. Desdemona sails with her husband, taking with them her companion Emilia, who is also Iago’s wife, and Othello’s lieutenant Michael Cassio, newly promoted over Iago’s head. Once in Cyprus, Iago plants the suspicion in Othello’s mind that Desdemona has been unfaithful to him with Cassio. He engineers a drunken brawl for which Cassio is blamed and dismissed by Othello. Desdemona intercedes on Cassio’s behalf but her constant pleas to Othello for his reinstatement only serve to convince Othello that Cassio is her lover. Iago acquires a treasured handkerchief that belonged to Desdemona and uses it as proof of the affair. Increasingly maddened by jealousy, Othello orders Iago to kill Cassio and strangles Desdemona himself. Emilia discloses her husband’s plot and Othello, tormented by grief and remorse, kills himself. Iago, after murdering his own wife, is left to the justice of the Venetian state’. (Source: http://www.rscshakespeare.co.uk/othello.html, accessed 6 November 2012.)

Production history

Written c. 1603 and the first known performance occurred on 1 November 1604 at Whitehall Palace in London. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Othello#Performance_history.)

Date of transmission

Wednesday 8 March 1950

Time

8.30-9.00pm

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Theatre company

Comédie Francaise

Credits

Producer

Eric Fawcett

Theatre Producer

Jean Meyer

Theatre Director

René Mathis

Playwright

William Shakespeare

Adapted for Television by

Eric Fawcett

Translator

Georges Neveux (1900-1982) (translated into French)

Music

Louis Beydts

Conductor

Eric Robinson

Sets / Settings

James Bould

Decor

A. M. Cassandre (stage setting)

Costumes

A. M. Cassandre

Introduced by

Michel St Denis

Cast

Jean Chevrier	Cassio
Aimé Clariond	Othello
Jean Debucourt	Iago
Louis Eymond	Montano
Renée Faure	Desdemona
Line Noro	Emilia
Francois Vibert	Ludovico

Additional details

Origination

Live from studio

Vision original

Monochrome

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

class issues / differences; race relations; tragedy

Print sources

Title

Entente cordiale: a French Othello (BBC, 1950) (Blog article)

Author/creator

John Wyver (Author)

Reference

http://screenplaystv.wordpress.com/2012/01/04/entente-cordiale-a-french-othello-bbc-1950, published 4 January 2012

Title

Radio Times, 3 March 1950 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing, p. 47; illustrated article by Carl Wildman, ‘France’s National Theatre’, p. 45

Title

Television: Mr Dimbleby’s Cough (Magazine review)

Author/creator

Harold Hobson (Author)

Reference

The Listener, 23 March 1950, p. 534