The Wonder, or A Woman Keeps a Secret

Summary: 1954 live BBC outside broadcast of a production of Susanna Centlivre’s 1714 play The Wonder, or A Woman Keeps a Secret, presented before an invited audience at the Theatre Royal, Bristol, by courtesy of the Old Vic Trust and the Arts Council of Great Britain. The production was preceded by the first in a series of programmes, Stage by Stage, about the British theatre. This first programme, ‘The Eighteenth-Century Theatre’, was broadcast from the Theatre Royal, Bristol, at 8.05pm on Monday 16 August 1954.
Theatre play: The Wonder, or A Woman Keeps a Secret by Susanna Centlivre [more information]
Play synopsis: 'Set in Lisbon, the plot interweaves two romantic intrigues around one "secret": the heroine Violante is hiding her best friend, Isabella (who is the sister of her own lover, Don Felix), from Isabella’s father who wishes to marry her off to a rich but decrepit old merchant. Because she is sworn to secrecy, Violante cannot reveal Isabella’s whereabouts, nor can she explain to Felix why Isabella’s new lover, a dashing British soldier, happens to be about the house, prompting Felix’s intense jealousy’ (source: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/516282.The_Wonder; accessed 3 May 2015).
Production history: Dated to 1714.
Date of transmission: Tuesday 17 August 1954
Time: 7.55-9.20pm
Series: Stage by Stage
Channel: BBC Television
Production company: BBC
Theatre company: Bristol Old Vic Company

Producer

Hal Burton

Playwright

Susanna Centlivre

Designer

Hal Burton

Cast

Title: Radio Times, 13 August 1954 (Magazine)
Linking notes: listing, p. 26; article by Hal Burton, ‘The Eighteenth-century Theatre’, p. 20

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