Misalliance

Summary

1954 live BBC studio production of Bernard Shaw’s comedy Misalliance, given to mark the playwright’s birthday.

Theatre play

Misalliance by [George] Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) [more information]

Play synopsis

Misalliance, subtitled A Debate in One Sitting, takes place entirely on a single Saturday afternoon in the conservatory of a large country house in Hindhead, Surrey in Edwardian era England. It is a continuation of some of the ideas on marriage that he expressed in 1908 in his play Getting Married. It was also a continuation of some of his other ideas on Socialism, physical fitness, the Life Force, and "The New Woman": i.e. women intent on escaping Victorian standards of helplessness, passivity, stuffy propriety, and non-involvement in politics or general affairs’ (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misalliance).

Production history

First staged in 1910.

Date of transmission

Tuesday 27 July 1954

Time

8.55-10.40pm

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

Douglas Allen

Playwright

[George] Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

Designer

Stephen Bundy

Cast

Maurice Colbourne	Lord Summerhays
Allan Cuthbertson	Joseph Percival
Patricia Laffan	Lina Szczepanowska
Richard Leech	Johnny Tarleton
Olga Lindo	Mrs Tarleton
Patrick Troughton	Gunner
Mary Watson	Hypatia Tarleton
Kenneth Williams	Bentley Summerhays
Arthur Young	Mr Tarleton

Additional details

Origination

Live from studio

Vision original

Monochrome

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

Edwardian drama; gender roles; marriage; sexuality (and morality, politics etc)

Print sources

Title

Radio Times, 23 July 1954 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing and caption by Peter Curran, p. 24