SHAKESPEARE

Synopsis

Radio broadcast of G.B. Shaw’s rewriting of Act V of Shakespeare’s Cymbeline (Cymbeline Refinished, 1937). Produced by Wilfrid Grantham. Richard Hutton narrates. With music composed and conducted by Francis Collinson.

Language

English

Country

Great Britain

Medium

Radio

Transmission details

5 Oct 1951 at 20:15 (Channel: BBC Third Programme)

Duration

30 mins

Availability

No archive copy known

Credits

Producer

Wilfrid Grantham

Writer

George Bernard Shaw

Cast

Edmund Willard	Cymbeline, King of Britain
Fay Compton	Imogen
Robert Harris	Posthumus Leonatus
Anthony Jacobs	Iachimo
Basil Dignam	Caius Lucius
Charles Leno	Pisanio
Gabriel Woolf	Guiderius
Noel Iliff	Philario
Norman Shelley	Belarius
Philip Levene	Captain
Richard Bebb	Arviragus
Richard Hutton	Narrator

Additional Details

Production type

Television and Radio Drama

Plays

Cymbeline

Subjects

Drama

Keywords

Shakespeare, William (1564-1616); Literary adaptation

Notes

Notes

A BBC recording.

General

Shaw’s version consists of a single scene in which he "presents Imogen as a modern woman, Posthumus as a complacent bourgeois, and Guiderius and Arviragus as independent-minded fellows who reject the chance to become Cymbeline’s heirs" ("Cymbeline", Shakespearean Criticism, Vol. 15, Detroit and London: Gale, 1991), p. 2.

History

Shaw’s Cymbeline Refinished was first performed at the Embassy Theatre, London, in 1937, where Shaw’s version was substituted in place of Shakespeare’s final act.

Shaw’s Foreword to Cymbeline Refinished had been broadcast on the Third Programme the previous day. A radio adaptation of Shakespeare’s play was broadcast on the same channel on 30/09/1951 (see separate entries).

Textual information

George Bernard Shaw. Cymbeline Refinished (Edinburgh: Privately printed, 1937).

Production Company

Name

BBC

Notes

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)