Escape | |
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Written by | John Galsworthy |
Date premiered | 12 August 1926 (UK) 26 October 1927 (US) |
Place premiered | Ambassadors Theatre London (UK) Booth Theatre New York City (US) |
Original language | English |
Genre | Drama |
Setting | Hyde Park, London and Dartmoor |
Escape is a play in nine episodes by the British writer John Galsworthy. The world premiere was on August 12, 1926 [1] at the Ambassadors Theatre in London's West End, produced by Leon M. Lion. The play ran until March of the following year, when it went on tour of England with Gerald Ames in the lead role. [2]
Subsequently, the play transferred to Broadway where it was produced and staged by Winthrop Ames [3] (no relation of Gerald Ames). The American production ran for 173 performances from 26 October 1927 to March 1928 at the Booth Theatre, New York City. [4] It was included in Burns Mantle's The Best Plays of 1927–1928.
The play was made into a film in 1930. [5]
Former World War I British Army Captain Matt Denant protects a poor prostitute from an over-persistent plainclothes police detective. In a scuffle Denant hits the officer who as a result falls, striking his head, and dies. Denant gets sentenced to Dartmoor Prison for manslaughter and escapes from a work detail. The plot is a series of episodes where Denant meets people who will either abet or obstruct his escape thus becoming a study in class structure and ethos according to Galsworthy's interpretation of 1920s British society.
Escape was adapted for the 1930 film Escape , and remade in 1948. [7]
A radio adaptation of play was broadcast in two parts August 15 and August 22, 1937, on the Columbia Workshop . Orson Welles starred as Captain Matt Denant. [8] : 338
The play was adapted for the October 15, 1939, episode of the CBS Radio series The Campbell Playhouse . The cast included Orson Welles (Matt Denant), Wendy Barrie (Lady in the hotel), Ray Collins (Murdered cop, Forgiving Judge, Unforgiving Farmer), Jack Smart (another Cop, Farmhand), Edgar Barrier (Priest and Cabbie), Bea Benaderet (Girl in park, Woman at picnic), Harriet Kay (Maid), Mabel Albertson (Bessie) and Benny Rubin (Man at picnic). [8] : 354 [9] : 57 [10] [11]
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The Booth Theatre is a Broadway theater at 222 West 45th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1913, the theater was designed by Henry Beaumont Herts in the Italian Renaissance style and was built for the Shubert brothers. The venue was originally operated by Winthrop Ames, who named it for 19th-century American actor Edwin Booth. It has 800 seats across two levels and is operated by The Shubert Organization. The facade and parts of the interior are New York City landmarks.
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