Montserrat

Summary: 1954 live BBC studio production of Emmanuel Robles’ play Montserrat, in the version by Lillian Hellman.
Theatre play: Montserrat by Lillian Hellman and Emmanuel Robles [more information]
Play synopsis: 'Montserrat (adapted from the French of Emmanuel Robles by Lillian Hellman) is a young Spanish officer sent to Venezuela in 1812 to help capture Bolivar. Actually, the idealistic Montserrat is helping to hide himand known to be. Aware that torture will never make Montserrat talk, his ruthless colonel adopts a crueler course: he collects six innocent townspeople who are to be shot unless Montserrat speaks up. Montserrat, though horrified, refuses; and a long, harrowing ordeal begins’ (source: http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,801104,00.html).

Read more: The Theater: New Play in Manhattan, Nov. 7, 1949 - TIME http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,801104,00.html#ixzz2njCG2Fv5
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Production history: Hellman’s version is dated to 1949 (see, for example, http://www.playbillvault.com/Show/Detail/4529/Montserrat).
Date of transmission: Tuesday 14 September 1954
Time: 8.35-10.05pm
Channel: BBC Television
Production company: BBC

Producer

Stephen Harrison

Adapted for the Stage by

Lillian Hellman

Playwright

Emmanuel Robles

Designer

John Clements (1910-1988)

Cast

Origination: Live from studio
Vision original: Monochrome
Extant status: No archival copy is known to exist.
Play tags: 19th-century setting; American drama; French drama; Venezuela, as theme or setting

Title: Radio Times, 10 September 1954 (Magazine)
Linking notes: listing, p. 26; article by Peter Watts, ‘When the Irresistible Force...', p. 4

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