Ages of Man

Synopsis: US television special. Adaptation of Gielgud’s 1959 one-man show on Broadway. Gielgud gives readings from the plays and sonnets grouped into the themes of Youth, Adulthood, Maturity and Death. There are readings from As You Like It, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest, Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, The Winters Tale. Measure for Measure. The sonnet readings are: Sonnet 18 ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?', Sonnet 116 ‘Let me not to the marriage of true minds’, Sonnet 129 ‘The expense of spirit in a waste of shame is lust in action’, and 130 ‘My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun’. Maturity: excerpts from Henry IV, Henry VI, Richard II, Twelfth Night, As You Like it, The Tempest. Sonnet 2 ‘When forty winters shall besiege thy brow’ and Sonnet 12 ‘When do I count the clock that tells the time’.
Language: English
Country: United States
Medium: Television
Transmission details: 23 Jan 1966 (Channel: CBS)
Duration: c4800 (16mm). feet

Director

Paul Bogart

Producer

Daniel Melnick; David Susskind

Cinematographer

Jack Priestley

Cast

John Gielgud

Notes: The BFI National Archive holds JOHN GIELGUD (1963) a 16mm preservation print of a promotional 4 minute film for the Broadway show. Shown in the PLAYBACK series produced by CBS, and introduced by Goddard Lieberson, Gielgud reads the ‘Seven Ages of Man’ speech (II vii) from As You Like It.

Released on DVD (region 1) 2010.
General: The show was devised by George Rylands and first staged at the Edinburgh Festival in 1957.
History: The programme was broadcast in two parts on US television (23/30 January 1966) and subsequently in Britain 2/9 October 1966.
Awards: Emmy Award 1966 - Outstanding Dramatic Programme.

Shakespeare, "Ages of Man". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/shakespeare/search/index.php/title/av36940 (Accessed 26 Nov 2024)

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