The School for Wives

Summary: 1958 Associated-Rediffusion production for ITV of The School for Wives by Molière.
Theatre play: The School for Wives [L’école des femmes] by Molière (bap. 1622-1673) [more information]
Play synopsis: Comedy in which ‘Arnolphe, a middle-aged roué, [...] has arrived at the conclusion, after a wide experience of womankind, that the best safeguard of a wife’s honor is extreme ignorance, that if she is not to befool her husband she must be a fool herself. No girl should know anything except how to sew, pray, spin and love the man to whom she is pledged. Her library should consist of only two books, the Bible and the Maxims of Marriage. Nor does he fail to reduce these theories to rigid practice. Intending to espouse his ward Agnes, he has her brought up at a convent school in complete seclusion. But the young lady, with a type of intelligent simplicity, unconsciously outwits him; she bestows her affections upon the gallant Horace, and the guardian, after being made the confident of the latter, is eventually left out in the cold’ (http://www.theatrehistory.com/french/schoolforwives001.html).
Production history: It was first staged at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal, Paris on 26 December 1662.
Date of transmission: Wednesday 23 April 1958
Time: 8.30-10.00pm
Series: Play of the Week
Channel: ITV
Production company: Associated-Rediffusion (1955-1964)

Director

Cyril Butcher

Playwright

Molière (bap. 1622-1673)

Adapted for Television by

Miles Malleson (1889-1969)

Sets / Settings

Reece Pemberton

Cast

Extant status: No archival copy is known to exist.
Play tags: 17th-century setting; comedy; France, as theme or setting; French drama; marriage

This record has been viewed 224 times.

British Universities Film & Video Council