Spring Meeting (play)

Last updated

Advertisement for the Broadway production Spring Meeting (play).jpg
Advertisement for the Broadway production

Spring Meeting is a 1938 British comedy play written by Molly Keane (as M.J. Farrell) and John Perry. It was a hit in the West End, running for 310 performances at the Ambassadors Theatre between May 1938 and March 1939. Directed by John Gielgud, the cast included Niall MacGinnis, Edmund Breon, Nicholas Phipps, Joyce Carey, Zena Dare, Betty Chancellor and Margaret Rutherford. Rutherford's performance in particular attracted strong reviews. [1] From December 1938 a Broadway version ran at the Morosco Theatre with a cast including Gladys Cooper and A.E. Matthews, lasting for 98 performances.

Contents

Synopsis

Tiny Fox-Collier, a penniless and divorced adventureress brings her son Tony with her to Ireland intending to marry him to the eldest daughter of her old flame, Sir Richard Furze, a member of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy. However she is already in love with a local stable hand, while he rapidly falls for the younger daughter. To add to the complications Tiny begins to rekindle her old relationship with Sir Richard.

Film Adaptation

In 1941 the play was turned into a film Spring Meeting directed by Walter Mycroft and featuring Nova Pilbeam, Michael Wilding, Sarah Churchill and Basil Sydney. Rutherford reprised her original role from the play.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaret Rutherford</span> British character actress (1892–1972)

Dame Margaret Taylor Rutherford, was an English actress of stage, television and film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Donat</span> English actor (1905–1958)

Friedrich Robert Donat was an English actor. He is best remembered for his roles in Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps (1935) and Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939), winning for the latter the Academy Award for Best Actor.

<i>Gas Light</i> 1938 British thriller play by Patrick Hamilton

Gas Light is a 1938 thriller play, set in 1880s London, written by the British novelist and playwright Patrick Hamilton. Hamilton's play is a dark tale of a marriage based on deceit and trickery, and a husband committed to driving his wife insane in order to steal from her.

<i>The Corn Is Green</i> Play by Emlyn Williams

The Corn Is Green is a 1938 semi-autobiographical play by Welsh dramatist and actor Emlyn Williams. The play premiered in London at the Duchess Theatre in September 1938; with Sybil Thorndike as Miss Moffat and Williams himself portraying Morgan Evans, the West End production ran in all for 600 performances. The original Broadway production starred Ethel Barrymore and premiered at the National Theatre in November 1940, running for 477 performances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Una O'Connor (actress)</span> Irish-American actress (1880–1959)

Una O'Connor was an Irish-born American actress who worked extensively in theatre before becoming a character actress in film and in television. She often portrayed comical wives, housekeepers and servants. In 2020, she was listed at number 19 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaretta Scott</span>

Margaretta Mary Winifred Scott was an English stage, screen and television actress whose career spanned over seventy years. She is best remembered for playing the eccentric widow Mrs. Pumphrey in the BBC television series All Creatures Great and Small (1978–1990).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Flemyng</span> British actor

Benjamin Arthur Flemyng, known professionally as Robert Flemyng, was a British actor. The son of a doctor, and originally intended for a medical career, Flemyng learned his stagecraft in provincial repertory theatre. In 1935 he appeared in a leading role in the West End, and the following year had his first major success, in Terence Rattigan's comedy French Without Tears. Between then and the Second World War he appeared in London and New York in a succession of comedies.

Kelville Ernest Irving was an English music director, conductor and composer, primarily remembered as a theatre musician in London between the wars, and for his key contributions to British film music as music director at Ealing Studios from the 1930s to the 1950s.

<i>The Beauty of Bath</i> Musical by Seymour Hicks and others

The Beauty of Bath is a musical comedy with a book by Seymour Hicks and Cosmo Hamilton, lyrics by C. H. Taylor and music by Herbert Haines; additional songs were provided by Jerome Kern, F. Clifford Harris (lyrics) and P. G. Wodehouse (lyrics). Based loosely on the play David Garrick, the story concerns a young woman from a noble family, who falls in love with an actor. She then meets a sailor who appears identical to the actor and mistakes him for the latter. Her father objects to a marriage with the actor, but when it turns out that she really loves the sailor, all objections fall away.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fabia Drake</span> British actress (1904–1990)

Fabia Drake OBE was a British actress whose professional career spanned almost 73 years during the 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Baxter</span> British actress

Jane Baxter was a British actress. Her stage career spanned half a century, and she appeared in a number of films and in television.

<i>Spring Meeting</i> 1941 British film

Spring Meeting is a 1941 British comedy film directed by Walter C. Mycroft and Norman Lee and starring Enid Stamp-Taylor, Michael Wilding, Basil Sydney and Sarah Churchill. It was based on a 1938 play of the same title by Molly Keane and John Perry. It was shot at Welwyn Studios. In 1942 it was given an American release, distributed by Monogram Pictures, and renamed, 'Three Wise Brides'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jay Laurier</span> English actor

James Alexander Chapman, known by his stage name, Jay Laurier, was an English actor. Early in his career he was a music hall performer, but by the late 1930s he was playing in the works of Shakespeare at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon as well as having a career in films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerald Lawrence</span> British actor (1873–1957)

Gerald Leslie Lawrence was a British actor and manager.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orson Welles theatre credits</span>

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.

Dorothy Irene de Singleton Dewhurst was an English stage and film actress. Born in 1886 in Sale, Cheshire, England, she was married to the actor George Bernard Copping, who predeceased her. She died on 12 December 1959 in London.

Good Morning, Bill is a comedic play by P. G. Wodehouse, adapted from the Hungarian play Doktor Juci Szabo by playwright Ladislaus Fodor. It premiered in London at the Duke of York's Theatre in 1927.

<i>The Lyons Mail</i> (play)

The Lyons Mail is an 1877 drama by Charles Reade based on his play The Courier of Lyons (1854). The new version was written for Henry Irving for performance at the Lyceum Theatre.

<i>Poison Pen</i> (play) 1937 play

Poison Pen is a mystery play by the British writer Richard Llewellyn. In a small English village, a series of Poison pen letters cause chaos and suspicion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joan White</span> British actor, director and educator

Joan White (1909-1999) was a British actress, theatre director and educator who over a career that spanned 65 years became a popular figure on the London stage, appeared in films and television and produced and directed plays on both sides of the Atlantic, and trained many of the young to follow in her footsteps. She worked with such storied names as Laurence Olivier, Paul Scofield, Tyrone Guthrie, and Christopher Fry in their successes, and with others such as Rex Harrison, Mischa Auer and Tyrone Guthrie in their failures. As a master of the art of high comedy she entertained numberless audiences, and through her students left an indelible mark on the future of her profession.

References

  1. Wearing p.681

Bibliography