Harlequinade is a comic play by Terence Rattigan.
The play was first performed on 8 September 1948 at the Phoenix Theatre, London, along with The Browning Version . [1]
Harlequinade is a comic play by Terence Rattigan.
The play was first performed on 8 September 1948 at the Phoenix Theatre, London, along with The Browning Version . [1]
This is a one act play about a professional theatre company presenting Romeo and Juliet . [2] The opening night is in the town of Brackley in the English Midlands. The principal characters are Arthur and his wife Edna (who play Romeo and Juliet) and the stage manager Jack. Arthur is horrified to be confronted by his grown up daughter (Muriel) and grandchild, neither of whose existences he had been aware of. To discover that he's a grandfather just before playing Romeo is too much for him. They later learn that he's still married to Muriel's mother (Flossie) and that he is bigamously married to Edna. There are a number of other threads running through this play, such as Jack's attempts to leave the theatre and do a 'real job' and the humdrum world of bit players and the attempts in post-war Britain to bring culture to the masses. It is a funny farce which has a strong satirical element.
The play opened on a double bill (Playbill) with The Browning Version, at the Phoenix Theatre, directed by Peter Glenville, with the following cast:
The play opened on Broadway with The Browning Version, on 12 October at the Coronet Theater, with Maurice Evans playing Arthur and Edna Best playing Edna. [3]
Harlequinade was played from 17 October 2015 until 16 January 2016 at the Garrick Theatre together with one-woman play All On Her Own. The show was played by the Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company with Kenneth Branagh playing Arthur and Miranda Raison playing Edna. [4]
Dame Dorothy Tutin, was an English actress of stage, film and television. For her work in the theatre, she won two Olivier Awards and two Evening Standard Awards for Best Actress. She was made a CBE in 1967 and a Dame (DBE) in 2000.
Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh is a British actor and filmmaker. Branagh trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London; in 2015, he succeeded Richard Attenborough as its president. He has been nominated for five Academy Awards and five Golden Globe Awards. He has won three BAFTAs and two Emmy Awards. He was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 2012 Birthday Honours and knighted on 9 November 2012. He was made a Freeman of his native city of Belfast in January 2018. In 2020, he was listed at number 20 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors.
The Browning Version is a play by Terence Rattigan, seen by many as his best work, and first performed on 8 September 1948 at the Phoenix Theatre, London. It was originally one of two short plays, jointly titled "Playbill"; the companion piece being Harlequinade, which forms the second half of the evening. The Browning Version is set in a boys' public school and the Classics teacher in the play, Crocker-Harris, is believed to have been based on Rattigan's Classics tutor at Harrow School, J.W. Coke Norris (1874–1961).
Romeo and Juliet is a 1936 American film adapted from the play by William Shakespeare, directed by George Cukor from a screenplay by Talbot Jennings. The film stars Leslie Howard as Romeo and Norma Shearer as Juliet, and the supporting cast features John Barrymore, Basil Rathbone, and Andy Devine.
Maurice Herbert Evans was an English actor, noted for his interpretations of Shakespearean characters. His best-known screen roles are Dr. Zaius in the 1968 film Planet of the Apes and Samantha Stephens' father, Maurice, on Bewitched.
Sir Robert Graham Stephens was a leading English actor in the early years of Britain's Royal National Theatre. He was one of the most respected actors of his generation and was at one time regarded as the natural successor to Laurence Olivier.
Edna May Oliver was an American stage and film actress. During the 1930s, she was one of the better-known character actresses in American films, often playing tart-tongued spinsters.
Raymond Fearon is a British actor who has worked in theatre, and is known for playing garage mechanic Nathan Harding on ITV's long-running soap opera Coronation Street.
The Renaissance Theatre Company was a theatre company founded in 1987 by Kenneth Branagh and David Parfitt. It was disbanded in 1992.
Jack Siegfried Ryder is an English actor, best known for playing Jamie Mitchell in the BBC One soap opera EastEnders from 1998 to 2002. He has subsequently established himself as a film and theatre director.
Peter Glenville was an English film and stage actor and director.
Mark Hadfield is an English actor.
Christopher Oram is a British theatre set and costume designer.
Edward Atienza was a British stage and film actor. He made his first London theatre appearance in the role of Mole in Toad of Toad Hall at the Prince's Theatre.
Vera Chok is a Malaysian actress and writer based in the United Kingdom, who has featured in stage, screen and radio roles.
This is a comprehensive listing of the theatre work of Orson Welles.
There isn't one person, I suppose, in a million, who knows that I was ever in the theatre.
John Dagleish is a British actor originally from Essex, known for his work in theatre.
This is a bibliography of the English actor, director, and writer Kenneth Branagh.
Harlequinade is a 1961 Australian TV play based on the Terence Rattigan play Harlequinade. It was directed by Bill Bain.
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