Everything in the Garden | |
---|---|
Written by | Edward Albee Giles Cooper |
Date premiered | 13 March 1962 1967 (Albee version) |
Original language | English |
Everything in the Garden is a play by Giles Cooper, first produced by The Royal Shakespeare Company in 1962 in London.
Everything in the Garden premiered in a Royal Shakespeare Company production at the New Arts Theatre Club, London, on 13 March 1962. Directed by Donald McWhinnie, the cast featured Geraldine McEwan (Jenny Acton), Betty Baskcomb (Leonie Pimosz), Diarmid Cammell (Roger), Brian Badcoe (Stephen), Geoffrey Chater (Tom), Carole Boyer (Beryl), Caroline Blakiston (Laura), Audine Leith (Louise), and Derek Godfrey (Bernard). [1]
John Elsom noted that the play "suffered from having no clear ending.... In a sense, Cooper's vision of mankind was too bleak to achieve surprise, happy or even definite endings." [2]
An American adaptation by Edward Albee, dedicated to the memory of Giles Cooper, premiered on Broadway at the Plymouth Theatre. The play opened on November 16, 1967, in previews and closed on February 10, 1968, after 14 previews and 84 performances. Directed by Peter Glenville, the cast featured Tom Aldredge (Gilbert), Charles Bazter (Perry), Barbara Bel Geddes (Jenny), Barry Nelson (Richard), Beatrice Straight (Mrs. Toothe), and Robert Moore (Jack). [3]
Barry Nelson and Barbara Bel Geddes had appeared together in The Moon is Blue (1951) and Mary, Mary (1961). [4]
The Albee version changes several aspects of the plot, including the names of some characters. [3] [5]
The Broadway version was budgeted at $150,000. Film rights were sold to 20th Century Fox for $300,000. Fox "made a down payment of $3000,000 toward a ceiling price of $750,000." [6]
The play was profiled in the William Goldman book The Season: A Candid Look at Broadway .
Russ Meyer was going to direct the film version. [7]
The play takes place in the suburban house of Richard and Jenny, (Albee version) with the garden that is seen through a sunroom. The couple are trying to keep up with their neighbours, but are struggling. They are visited by a madam, and Jenny becomes a part-time prostitute.
Edward Franklin Albee III was an American playwright known for works such as The Zoo Story (1958), The Sandbox (1959), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962), A Delicate Balance (1966), and Three Tall Women (1994). Some critics have argued that some of his work constitutes an American variant of what Martin Esslin identified as and named the Theater of the Absurd. Three of his plays won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and two of his other works won the Tony Award for Best Play.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a play by Edward Albee first staged in October 1962. It examines the complexities of the marriage of middle-aged couple Martha and George. Late one evening, after a university faculty party, they receive unwitting younger couple Nick and Honey as guests, and draw them into their bitter and frustrated relationship.
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Barbara Bel Geddes was an American stage and screen actress, artist, and children's author whose career spanned almost 5 decades. She was best known for her starring role as Miss Ellie Ewing in the television series Dallas. Bel Geddes also starred as Maggie in the original Broadway production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1955. Her notable films included I Remember Mama (1948) and Vertigo (1958). Throughout her career, she was the recipient of several acting awards and nominations.
Theatre Intime is an entirely student-run dramatic arts not-for-profit organization operating out of the Hamilton Murray Theater at Princeton University. Intime receives no direct support from the university, and is entirely acted, produced, directed, teched and managed by a board of students that is elected once a semester. "Students manage every aspect of Theatre Intime, from choosing the plays to setting the ticket prices."
Irene Worth, CBE, born Harriett Elizabeth Abrams, was an American stage and screen actress who became one of the leading stars of the British and American theatre. She pronounced her first name with three syllables: "I-REE-nee".
Emily Betsy Mann is an American director, playwright and screenwriter. She served as the artistic director and resident playwright of the McCarter Theatre Center from 1990 to 2020.
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