The Laughing Woman

Summary

1958 BBC Television production of Gordon Daviot’s The Laughing Woman.

Theatre play

The Laughing Woman by Gordon Daviot (1896-1952) [more information]

Play synopsis

A play inspired by the life of the young and gifted French sculptor Henri Gaudier and the Polish woman Sophie Brzeska. The two lived platonically together in London until the First World War cruelly interrupted his career.

Production history

First produced in the West End and published in 1934.

Date of transmission

Friday 12 December 1958

Time

8.45pm (90 mins)

Series

Sunday-Night Theatre

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

John Jacobs

Playwright

Gordon Daviot (1896-1952)

Designer

John Cooper

Artist

Sydney Harpley (credited with ‘sculpture and drawings’)

Cast

Ronald Adam (1896-1979)	Sir Cuthbert Graham
Lally Bowers	Laura Gadd
Peter Bull	Smith
Angela Crow	Doll Simmons
Rosalie Crutchley	Magda Kletzka
Brenda Dunrich	Madame Grumier
John Falconer	Butler
Michael Golden	O’Brien
Nan Marrion-Watson	Washerwoman
Martin Miller	Hergesheimer
Peter O’Toole	René Latour
Dorothea Phillips	MArion Slade
Marian Spencer	Mrs Smith
Gabriel Toyne	Burched
Jennifer Wilson	Hazel Graham

Additional details

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

art world; wartime, as theme or setting

Print sources

Title

Radio Times, 12 December 1958 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing, image and article on p. 9

Title

The Book Man Travels: Deserved Promotion (Newspaper review)

Reference

The Manchester Guardian, 16 December 1958, p. 5