Great Catherine

Summary: 1953 BBC live studio production of Bernard Shaw’s one-act historical drama Great Catherine.
Theatre play: Great Catherine by [George] Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) [more information]
Play synopsis: One-act historical drama. ‘The plot focuses on Captain Charles Edstaston, a very prim and proper British military attaché who, in 1776, is assigned to the Imperial Russian court in Saint Petersburg, during the 34-year (1762-1796) rule of Empress Catherine the Great, and brings his equally prim fiancée, Claire, with him. In the midst of court intrigue and palace politics, primarily instigated by Catherine’s favoured statesman and military leader, the drunken, ill-mannered, but crafty Prince Patiomkin, the imperiously commanding, yet concurrently, voraciously intimate Catherine toys with the naive arrival, questioning his rigid beliefs, leading him to drop his guarded mannerisms and, in the process, she also learns certain philosophical truths.'
Production history: First presented on 18 November 1913 at the Vaudeville Theatre, London.
Date of transmission: Wednesday 15 April 1953
Time: 9.15-10.05pm
Series: Wednesday Theatre
Channel: BBC Television
Production company: BBC

Producer

Barbara Burnham

Playwright

[George] Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

Sets / Settings

Frederick Knapman

Assistant Producer

Michael Barry

Cast

Origination: Live from studio
Vision original: Monochrome
Extant status: No archival copy is known to exist.
Play tags: Edwardian drama; historical drama; Russia (Soviet Union etc), as theme or setting

This record has been viewed 324 times.

British Universities Film & Video Council