Escape (play)

Escape
Written by John Galsworthy
Date premiered 1926 (UK)
26 October 1927 (US)
Place premiered Booth Theatre
New York City, New York (US)
Original language English
Genre Drama
Setting London area and the Moor

Escape is a 1926 British play in nine episodes written by John Galsworthy. After a run in the London West End it transferred to Broadway where it was produced and staged by Winthrop Ames.[1] It ran for 173 performances from 26 October 1927 to March 1928 at the Booth Theatre.[2] It was included in Burns Mantle's The Best Plays of 1927–1928.

Plot

Former World War I British Army Captain Matt Denant protects a poor prostitute from an over-persistent plain-clothes police detective. In a scuffle Denant hits the dick who as a result falls, hitting his head, and dies. Denant gets sentenced to Dartmoor Prison for manslaughter and escapes from a work detail. The plot is a series of episodes where Denant meets people who will either abet or obstruct his escape thus becoming a study in class structure and ethos according to Galsworthy's interpretation of 1920s British society.

Cast

  • Leslie Howard as Captain Matt Denant, A. B. I. Imeson, the policeman and the warder
  • Henrietta Goodwin as girl of the town
  • Edgar B. Kent as plain-clothes man, the other warder and the Dartmoor constable
  • St. Clair Bayfield as the captain and the laborer
  • Laurence Hanray as the fellow convict, the old gentleman and the farmer
  • F. Cecil Butler as the other policeman and the other laborer
  • Austin Trevor as the parson
  • Frieda Inescort as the shingled lady
  • Lois Heatherley as Miss Grace
  • Geraldine Kay as little girl
  • Renee Macredy as Miss Dora
  • Cyrena Smith as the maid
  • Alan Trotter as the man in Plus fours and the bellringer
  • Viva Tattersall as wife of man in Plus fours
  • J. P. Wilson as shopkeeper
  • Lily Kerr as wife of shopkeeper
  • Ruth Vivian as sister of shopkeeper

Adaptations

Newspaper advertisement for The Campbell Playhouse presentation of "Escape" (October 15, 1939)

Escape was adapted for the 1930 film Escape, and remade in 1948.[3]

A radio adaptation of play was broadcast in two parts August 15 and August 22, 1937, on the Columbia Workshop. Orson Welles starred as Captain Matt Denant.[4]:338

The play was adapted for the October 15, 1939, episode of the CBS Radio series The Campbell Playhouse. The cast included Orson Welles (Matt Denant), Wendy Barrie (Lady in the hotel), Ray Collins (Murdered cop, Forgiving Judge, Unforgiving Farmer), Jack Smart (another Cop, Farmhand), Edgar Barrier (Priest and Cabbie), Bea Benaderet (Girl in park, Woman at picnic), Harriet Kay (Maid), Mabel Albertson (Bessie) and Benny Rubin (Man at picnic).[4]:354[5]:57[6][7]

References

  1. ↑ "Production of Escape - Theatricalia". theatricalia.com.
  2. ↑ League, The Broadway. "Escape – Broadway Play – Original - IBDB". www.ibdb.com.
  3. ↑ Goble, Alan (1 January 1999). "The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film". Walter de Gruyter – via Google Books.
  4. 1 2 Welles, Orson; Bogdanovich, Peter; Rosenbaum, Jonathan (1992). This is Orson Welles. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 0-06-016616-9.
  5. ↑ Orson Welles on the Air: The Radio Years. New York: The Museum of Broadcasting, catalogue for exhibition October 28–December 3, 1988.
  6. ↑ "The Campbell Playhouse". RadioGOLDINdex. Retrieved 2017-08-15.
  7. ↑ "The Campbell Playhouse: Escape". Orson Welles on the Air, 1938–1946. Indiana University Bloomington. October 15, 1939. Retrieved 2018-07-31.
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