Camino Real

Summary

1964 Granada Television production for ITV of Camino Real by Tennessee Williams.

Theatre play

Camino Real by Tennessee Williams [more information]

Play synopsis

'The play takes its title from its setting, alluded to El Camino Real, a dead-end place in a Spanish-speaking town surrounded by desert with sporadic transportation to the outside world. [...] Kilroy, a young American visitor, fulfills some of the functions of the play’s narrator, as does Gutman, [...] manager of the hotel Siete Mares, whose terrace occupies part of the stage. Williams also employs a large cast of characters including many famous literary characters who appear in dream sequences. They include Don Quixote and his partner Sancho, Marguerite "Camille" Gautier (see The Lady of the Camellias), Casanova, Lord Byron, and Esmeralda (see The Hunchback of Notre Dame), among others. Taking place in the main plaza, the play goes through a series of confusing and almost logic-defying events, including the revival of the Gypsy’s daughter (Esmeralda)'s virginity and then the loss of it again. A main theme that the play deals with is coming to terms with the thought of growing older and possibly becoming irrelevant.' Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camino_Real_%28play%29.

Production history

'Camino Real was originated from a Williams’s one-act play, Ten Blocks on the Camino Real. This series of 10 scenes, or "blocks", was first staged in a workshop by Elia Kazan at the Actors Studio in 1949, and later turned into a 1953 Broadway production directed by Kazan [...] with only 60 performances on Broadway, the play was not a mainstream success.' Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camino_Real_%28play%29.

Date of transmission

Monday 27 January 1964

Time

9.10-10.40pm

Series

Play of the Week

Channel

ITV

Production company

Granada Television (1956-)

Credits

Director

Henry Kaplan

Playwright

Tennessee Williams

Composer

Derek Hilton ('theme music’)

Designer

Peter Phillips

Editor

Hugh Leonard (1926-2009) ('Edited for television’)

Cast

Roger Bizley	Officer
Andre Boulay	Waiter
Pamela Brown	Marguerite Gautier
Carmen Capaldi
Golda Casmir	Rosita
Erik Chitty (1907-1977)	Lord Mulligan
John Church	Young Man
Diane Cilento	Esmerelda
Denise Coffey	Woman
Patience Collier	Gypsy
Tony Cyrus
Roy Desmond	Pilot
Vernon Dobtcheff	A. Ratt
Donald Eccles	Don Quixote
Hugh Futcher	Lobo
Cy Grant	Dreamer
Ursula Granville
Zoe Hicks
Harold Innocent	Nursie
Viola Keats	Lady Mulligan
Michael Latimer	Travel Agent
Donald Madden	Kilroy
Philip Madoc	Byron
Victoria Mitchell
Riggs O’Hara	Street Cleaner
Janet Pate
Morris Perry	Medical Instructor
Paul Phillips
Robert Pitt
Mike Pratt	Survivor
Walter Randall	Loan Shark
Neil Robinson	Street Cleaner
George Roderick	Guard
Vladek Sheybal	Gutman
Katherine St John	Prudence
Totti Truman Taylor	Olympe
Iza Teller
André Van Gyseghem	Baron De Charlus
Anton Vivian	Abdullah
Eileen Way	La Madrecita
Blaise Wyndham
Peter Wyngarde	Jacques Casanova

Additional details

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

American drama

Print sources

Title

TV Times, 24 January 1964 (Magazine)

Linking notes

article, p. 13; listing p. 31