Ruth (film)

Ruth is an Australian TV play. It was presented as part of the Shell Presents program and starred Lyndall Barbour. It was written by John Glennon, an American actor who appeared in the production.

"Ruth"
Shell Presents episode
Episode no.Season 1
Episode 7
Directed byRod Kinnear
Teleplay byJohn Glennon
Original air date5 September 1959 (Melbourne)[1][2]
19 September 1959 (Sydney)[3]

Australian TV drama was relatively rare at the time.[4]

Plot

Cal, is a lonely man, whose mother did not show him much affection. He is a neighbour to Ruth, a woman with mental problems. Cal's mother and neighbours have attitudes about it.

Cast
  • Lyndall Barbour as Ruth
  • John Glennon as Cal
  • Edward Howell
  • Jeannie James
  • Barbara Brandon
  • Agnes Dobson
  • Lorna Stirling
  • Murielle Hearne
  • Betty Randall
  • Wyn McAlpin
  • Wyn Pullman

Production

John Glennon was an American actor and playwright. He arrived in Melbourne on 8 August 1959 to present two plays for GTV-9, starting with Ruth. He was also to help coach Australian writers and producers on US drama techniques.[5]

The producers wanted Lydall Barbour to play the lead. She was tracked down to a hotel room in Paris and John Glennon travelled from London to persuade her to accept the part. The play was produced in Melbourne at the GTV 9 studios.[6][7]

While rehearsing it Glennon said he was working on a play about Australians in London.[8]

Reception

The TV critic from the Sydney Morning Herald called it "a highly original and diverting play" where Glennon's writing was "in an attractively inventive and individual way that sometimes shades into the eccentric". He said "the play's great fault is that its ingredients are too rich for comfortable compression into an hour. It needs more time and space to develop ideas ana incidents too arbitrarily imposed in this production."[9]

The Age TV critic wrote that those viewers "who got the message" would have found the play "interesting. For those who didn't it could have been a bit of a bore."[10]

References
  1. "Script Conference". The Age. 27 August 1959. p. 13.
  2. "Advertisement". The Age. 3 September 1959. p. 14.
  3. "All the TV Programmes". ABC Weekly. 16 September 1959. p. 34.
  4. Vagg, Stephen (18 February 2019). "60 Australian TV Plays of the 1950s & '60s". Filmink.
  5. "Untitled". The Age. 6 August 1959. p. 14.
  6. "Women dominate cast". Sydney Morning Herald. 14 September 1959. p. 13.
  7. "TV Highlights". The Biz. New South Wales, Australia. 16 September 1959. p. 5. Retrieved 14 September 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. "Untitled". The Age. 3 September 1959. p. 15.
  9. "Shell Play Presented By ATN 7". Sydney Morning Herald. 21 September 1959. p. 6.
  10. "Mixed Feelings About Ruth". The Age. 10 September 1959. p. 14.


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