Parnell

Summary: 1959 Associated-Rediffusion production for ITV of Parnell by Elsie T. Schauffler.
Theatre play: Parnell by Elsie T. Schauffler (1885-1935) [more information]
Play synopsis: Historical drama set in London in 1880. ‘Charles Parnell has been neither eulogised nor defamed by Miss Elsie Schaufflerhe has been humanised. [...] No one seemed capable of looking at Parnell dispassionatelyhe must either be the Messiah of the Irish people or an utter outcast of the lowest nature. Miss Schauffler shows him as neither of these things. She shows him as a born leader, as a man who knew his own purpose and who was as certain of what he wanted in the Cabinet as he was of what he wanted in love. All means he sacrificed to attain these ends.' (Source: anonymous review of the Gate Theatre production in the Catholic Herald, 29 May 1936, available at http://archive.catholicherald.co.uk/article/29th-may-1936/10/chastity-my-brother-parnell-ballets-de-monte-carlo; accessed 12 February 1936)
Production history: First performed on Broadway in November 1935 in a production directed by Guthrie McClintic, at the Gate Theatre, London in May, 1936 and then at the New Theatre, London from November 1936 to March 1937. Published London: Samuel French, 1936
Date of transmission: Tuesday 10 February 1959
Time: 8.30-10.00pm
Series: Play of the Week
Channel: ITV
Production company: Associated-Rediffusion (1955-1964)

Director

David Boisseau

Playwright

Elsie T. Schauffler (1885-1935)

Adapted for Television by

Jessica Morton

Designer

Fred Pusey

Cast

Extant status: No archival copy is known to exist.
Play tags: 19th-century setting; historical drama; politics; Republic of Ireland, as theme or setting; sexuality (and morality, politics etc)

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