The Potting Shed

Last updated

First production programme ThePottingShed.jpg
First production programme

The Potting Shed is a 1957 play by Graham Greene in three acts. The psychological drama centers on a secret held by the Callifer family for nearly thirty years.

Contents

The patriarch of the family is dying and James, his estranged son, appears unexpectedly. He can remember nothing about a mysterious moment that occurred in the family's potting shed when he was age 14. Family members who recall the event are unwilling to describe it to him. With the help of a psychoanalyst, James tries to recall just what happened that day that left him rejected by his father, alienated from his family, and alone in the world.

Characters

Theatre productions

The Broadway production was directed by Carmen Capalbo. It opened on 29 January 1957 at the Bijou Theatre and later moved to the John Golden Theatre to complete its run of 143 performances. Robert Flemyng starred as James Callifer and Sybil Thorndike, Frank Conroy, Leueen MacGrath, Joan Croydon, Lewis Casson, and Carol Lynley were cast in supporting roles. [1]

The Potting Shed was first produced in London on 5 February 1958 at the Globe Theatre, directed by Michael Macowan, starring; Walter Hudd, Sarah Long, Lockwood West, John Gielgud, Peter Illing, Redmond Phillips. [2]

The third act of the play differed between the 1957 American and 1958 British productions. An author's note in the British edition of the published play (William Heinemann, 1958) states:

The Potting Shed was produced in New York in 1957 with a different third act which appears in the American edition of the play. For the English production, we have reverted to the last act as it was originally written and this is the only version authorised for Great Britain.

Greene never was pleased with the third act and rewrote it during rehearsals of the American production; he changed it back to the original script for the British premiere. [3]

Time wrote "The play's emotional power derives from its harassed outcries and silences, from very human bafflements and needs, from a truly serious man's intensities and jocosities alike...for two acts, culminating in a superbly dramatic revelation scene, The Potting Shed, by its writing and storytelling alike, more and more grips and stirs its audience."

It was revived at the Finborough Theatre in early 2011. [4]

Awards and nominations

Screen adaptations

In 1961, Paul Bogart directed the play for the television series The Play of the Week . Frank Conroy reprised his Broadway role. The cast included John Baragrey as James Callifer and Ludwig Donath, Ann Harding, Fritz Weaver, and Nancy Wickwire in supporting roles. [5]

A 1981 television production of the play was written by Pat Sandys and produced by Yorkshire Television for the London Weekend Television series Celebrity Playhouse. The cast, directed by David Cunliffe, included Paul Scofield as James Callifer and Anna Massey, Maurice Denham, Celia Johnson, David Swift, Allan Cuthbertson, and Cyril Luckham. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kim Stanley</span> American actress (1925–2001)

Kim Stanley was an American actress, primarily in television and theatre, but with occasional film performances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sybil Thorndike</span> English actress (1882–1976)

Dame Agnes Sybil Thorndike, Lady Casson, was an English actress whose stage career lasted from 1904 to 1969.

<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.

<i>Saint Joan</i> (play) Play by George Bernard Shaw

Saint Joan is a play by George Bernard Shaw about 15th-century French military figure Joan of Arc. Premiering in 1923, three years after her canonization by the Roman Catholic Church, the play reflects Shaw's belief that the people involved in Joan's trial acted according to what they thought was right. He wrote in his preface to the play:

There are no villains in the piece. Crime, like disease, is not interesting: it is something to be done away with by general consent, and that is all [there is] about it. It is what men do at their best, with good intentions, and what normal men and women find that they must and will do in spite of their intentions, that really concern us.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carol Lynley</span> American actress (1942–2019)

Carol Lynley was an American actress known for her roles in the films Blue Denim (1959) and The Poseidon Adventure (1972).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malcolm Keen</span> British actor

Malcolm Keen was an English actor of stage, film and television. He was sometimes credited as Malcolm Keane.

<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.

Gerald Harper is an English actor, best known for his work on television, having played the title roles in Adam Adamant Lives! (1966–67) and Hadleigh (1969–76). He then returned to his main love, the theatre. His classical work includes playing on Broadway with the Old Vic company, playing Iago at the Bristol Old Vic and Benedick at the Chichester Festival Theatre. Other plays in London included Crucifer of Blood at the Haymarket Theatre, House Guest, A Personal Affair, Suddenly at Home and Baggage. He has directed many plays, amongst them a production of Blithe Spirit in Hebrew at the Israeli National Theatre.

<i>Twentieth Century</i> (play) 1932 play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur

Twentieth Century is a 1932 play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur based on the unproduced play Napoleon of Broadway by Charles B. Millholland, inspired by his experience working for the eccentric Broadway impresario David Belasco.

<i>Pack of Lies</i> 1983 play by Hugh Whitemore

Pack of Lies is a 1983 play by English writer Hugh Whitemore, itself adapted from his Act of Betrayal, an episode of the BBC anthology series Play of the Month transmitted in 1971.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Conroy (actor)</span> British actor (1890–1964)

Frank Parish Conroy was a British film and stage actor who appeared in many films, notably Grand Hotel (1932), The Little Minister (1934) and The Ox-Bow Incident (1943).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Urquhart (actor)</span> Scottish actor (1921–1995)

Robert Urquhart was a Scottish character actor who worked on the stage, for British television, and in film. His breakthrough role was Paul Krempe in The Curse of Frankenstein in 1957, along with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.

<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>Three Men on a Horse</i>

Three Men on a Horse is a three-act farce co-authored by John Cecil Holm and George Abbott. The comedy focuses on a man who discovers he has a talent for choosing the winning horse in a race as long as he never places a bet himself. Originally titled Hobby Horse by John Cecil Holm, Three Men On A Horse was a property controlled and produced by Alex Yokel, who reached out to Warner Bros. for financial assistance; Warners agreed to provide financing on the condition Yokel find someone to doctor the script and direct the Broadway production. George Abbott, the director, who had since 1932 directed and produced each of his Broadway productions, immediately saw the potential and rewrote the script and agreed to direct if he received co-author credit and split the author's royalties with Holm. Abbott wrote a third act, resulting in a new three-act play titled Three Men on a Horse.

<i>Waiting in the Wings</i> (play)

Waiting in the Wings is a play by Noël Coward. Set in a retirement home for actresses, it focuses on a feud between residents Lotta Bainbridge and May Davenport, who once both loved the same man.

Robin Midgley was a director in theatre, television and radio and responsible for some of the earliest episodes of Z-Cars and for the television version of the Royal Shakespeare Company's Wars of the Roses.

St Helena: a play in twelve scenes is a play by the English author R. C. Sherriff and Jeanne de Casalis. It deals with the exile of Napoleon I on Saint Helena. In a production by Henry Cass, it premiered at the Old Vic on 4 February 1936 to poor reviews, but was rescued by a letter to The Times by Winston Churchill, calling it "a remarkable play" and "a work of art of a very high order"; though a West End transfer also proved unsuccessful.

John Baragrey was an American film, television, and stage actor who appeared in virtually every dramatic television series of the 1950s and early 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Archdale</span> Australian actor

Alexander Mervyn Archdale was a British actor, manager and theatre producer. He had a very long career in both the theatre and in film, stretching from the 1930s to the 1980s. He spent the latter part of his life and career in Australia.

<i>The Complaisant Lover</i>

The Complaisant Lover is a 1959 comedy play by Graham Greene. Consisting of two acts, each of two scenes, the play revolves around an affair between Mary Rhodes and Clive Root, the book seller friend of her husband, Victor. The play takes place in the Rhodes family home and an Amsterdam guesthouse.

References

  1. "The Potting Shed – Broadway Play – Original | IBDB". www.ibdb.com.
  2. "Production of The Potting Shed | Theatricalia". theatricalia.com.
  3. Jon Wise and Mike Hill (2012). The Works of Graham Greene: A Reader's Bibliography and Guide. Continuum Books. p. 32.
  4. "The Potting Shed - Review". The Guardian . 7 January 2011. Retrieved 27 October 2014.
  5. Gould, Jack (10 January 1961). "Graham Greene's Drama of Faith Is Presented on 'The Play of the Week'". The New York Times via NYTimes.com.
  6. "The Potting Shed (1981)". BFI. Archived from the original on 25 April 2017.