The Rat Wife

Summary

1958 ABC Television production for ITV of The Rat Wife, an adaptation for television of Little Eyolf by Henrik Ibsen. The TV Times credits the production to the ABC Players.

Theatre play

Little Eyolf [Lille Eyolf] by Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) [more information]

Play synopsis

'A possessive woman, a weak husband - and a sister-in-law who is devoted to their crippled son - work out a strange destiny’ (TV Times, 18 April 1958, p. 25).

Production history

The play was first performed on January 12, 1895 in the Deutsches Theater in Berlin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Eyolf).

Date of transmission

Sunday 20 April 1958

Time

9.35-10.50pm

Series

Armchair Theatre

Channel

ITV

Production company

ABC Television (1955-1968)

Credits

Director

Stuart Latham

Playwright

Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906)

Translator

Michael Meyer

Designer

Voytek

Cast

John Carson	Borghem
Joan Heath	An Old Woman
Patricia Heneghan	Rita Allmers
Neil McCallum	Alfred
Mary Peach	Asta
Jimmy Ray	Eyolf

Additional details

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

19th-century setting; Norwegian drama

Print sources

Title

The Armchair Theatre: How to Write, Design, Direct, Act and Enjoy Television Plays (Book)

Reference

London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1959

Linking notes

pp. 108-9

Title

TV Times, 18 April 1958 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing, p. 25; article, p. 7