SHAKESPEARE

Alternative title

What the Public Wants is Shakespeare

Synopsis

Radio play based on the short story ‘Excursion in Reality’ by Evelyn Waugh (1932), adapted for broadcasting by Olga Klaenforth. Waugh’s satire on the film industry features the visionary studio magnate, Sir James Macrae (Kurt Erhardt), a man determined to remake Hamlet "from an entirely new angle." How, Macrae asks rhetorically, "can you expect the public to enjoy Shakespeare when they can’t make head or tail of the dialogue. D’you know I began reading a copy the other day and blessed if I could understand it. At once I said, ‘What the public wants is Shakespeare with all his beauty of thought and character translated into the language of everyday life.'"

Language

English

Country

Great Britain

Medium

Radio

Transmission details

28 Jan 1953 (Channel: Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (NWDR))

Duration

25 mins

Availability

No copy known (12/2008)

Credits

Producer

Heinrich Koch

Writer

Evelyn Waugh

Adaptor for Radio

Olga Klaenforth

Cast

Evy Gotthardt	Ellinor Grits
Hansi Kessler	Secretary
Jörn Anderson	Somon Lent
Kurt Erhardt	Sir James Macrae
Luscha Wendt	Miss Bentham
Ursula Schmoock	Sylvia Lennox

Additional Details

Production type

Television and Radio Drama

Plays

Hamlet

Subjects

Drama

Keywords

Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Notes

History

Original transmission time unknown.

Textual information

Evelyn Waugh, Work Suspended and Other Stories, Chapman and Hall, 1943.

Reviews

Source: ARD radio drama archive (Hörspiel-Archiv) at http://www.ard.de/radio/hoerspiel-lesung/hoerspielarchiv (accessed 12/2008).

Production Company

Name

Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (NWDR)

Notes

On 1 January 1956, the NWDR was succeeded by Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) and Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR).