The Captain of Koepenick

Summary: BBC production of an English adaptation of Carl Zuckmayer’s Der Hauptmann von Köpenick [The Captain of Köpenick]. This production featured the largest speaking cast that Rudolph Cartier had ever used and twenty-one sets (The Manchester Guardian, 8 January 1958, p. 5).
Theatre play: Der Hauptmann von Köpenick by Carl Zuckmayer (1894-1944) [more information]
Play synopsis: This satirical comedy concerns the military class in pre-WWI Germany. It is about the impersonation of a person of status by an ex-convict cobbler, Wilhelm Voigt, who desperately seeks identity papers, without which he cannot get work. It is set in Potsdam, 1896; Sonnenburg Prison, ten years later; Rixdorf, Berlin and Köpenick, in 1906.
Production history: Premiered in 1931.
Date of transmission: Sunday 19 January 1958
Time: 8.30pm (105 mins)
Series: Television World Theatre
Channel: BBC Television
Production company: BBC

Producer

Rudolph Cartier

Playwright

Carl Zuckmayer (1894-1944)

Adapted for Television by

Elizabeth Montagu

Translator

Howard Dietz

Designer

Guy Sheppard

Cast

Notes: This production is estimated to have been seen by eight million viewers (source: ‘Cost to BBC of Competitive Television’, The Times, 13 March 1958, p. 14).
Extant status: No archival copy is known to exist.
Play tags: 19th-century setting; comedy; Germany, as theme or setting; prison

Title: Satire on German Military Caste: The Captain of Koepenick (Newspaper review)
Reference: The Manchester Guardian, 20 January 1958, p. 5

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