The Jar

Summary

BBC Television production of Luigi Pirandello’s one-act comedy The Jar.

Theatre play

The Jar by Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936) [more information]

Play synopsis

'The scene is outside a Sicilian farmhouse’ (Radio Times, 22 October 1937, p. 18). The plot concerns the olive farmer Don Lollo Zirafa’s anger over a large jar which is broken by an unknown farm-worker and then fixed; but the man who did the repair job seals himself in the large jar, making Zirafa himself liable for breaking it a second time.

Production history

The Jar seems to be both a short story and a one-act comic play by Pirandello. It was published in 1928 in One-Act Plays, ed. Arthur Livingstone, 1928.

Date of transmission

Thursday 28 October 1937

Time

3.35pm (25 mins)

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

Jan Bussell

Playwright

Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936)

Musician

Pietro Diego (accordionist)

Cast

William Lyon Brown
Peter Bull
Roy Graham
Rosemary Lomax
Muriel Minty
Lloyd M. Pearson
Hector Ross
Wilfrid Thomas
Hilary Wertheim
Charles Windermere

Additional details

Later transmissions

Broadcast again at 9.35pm on Saturday 30 October 1937.

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

comedy; Italy, as theme or setting

Print sources

Title

BBC Television Programme Records: vol. 1, 1937-38 (Book)

Reference

London: British Broadcasting Corporation, 1938

Linking notes

listing on p. 86

Title

Radio Times, 22 October 1937 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing on p. 18