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Somebody Knows
''Somebody Knows'' is a 1932 mystery play by the British writer John Van Druten about an entertainer who is accused of strangling a prostitute. Following a court case there is not enough evidence to convict him, leaving the audience unsure of his actual guilt. It was staged at St Martin's Theatre in the West End, running for 43 performances between 12 May and 18 June 1932. The cast included Frank Lawton, Lawrence Hanray, Enid Stamp-Taylor and Cathleen Nesbitt. It was comparatively unsuccessful at a time when many of Van Druten's work's were enjoying commercial success. He attributed this to the fact that audiences expected a standard whodunnit A ''whodunit'' or ''whodunnit'' (a colloquial elision of "Who asdone it?") is a complex plot-driven variety of detective fiction in which the puzzle regarding who committed the crime is the main focus. The reader or viewer is provided with the ... while he was interested in developing a character study.Weintraub p.194 References Bib ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Van Druten
John William Van Druten (1 June 190119 December 1957) was an English playwright and theatre director. He began his career in London, and later moved to America, becoming a U.S. citizen. He was known for his plays of witty and urbane observations of contemporary life and society. Biography Van Druten was born in London in 1901, son of a Dutch father named Wilhelmus van Druten and his English wife Eva. He was educated at University College School and read law at the University of London. Before commencing his career as a writer, he practised law for a while as a solicitor and university lecturer in Wales. He first came to prominence with ''Young Woodley (play), Young Woodley'', a slight but charming study of adolescence, produced in New York in 1925. However, it was banned in London by the Lord Chamberlain's office owing to its then controversial portrayal of a schoolboy falling in love with his headmaster's wife. In Britain, it was first produced privately (by Phyllis Whitworth' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
St Martin's Theatre
St Martin's Theatre is a West End theatre which has staged the production of ''The Mousetrap'' since March 1974, making it the longest continuous run of any show in the world. The theatre is located in West Street, near Shaftesbury Avenue, in the West End of London. It was designed by W. G. R. Sprague as one of a pair of theatres, along with the Ambassadors Theatre, also in West Street. Richard Verney, 19th Baron Willoughby de Broke, together with B. A. (Bertie) Meyer, commissioned Sprague to design the theatre buildings. Although the Ambassadors opened in 1913, construction of the St Martin's was delayed by the outbreak of the First World War. The theatre is still owned by the present Lord Willoughby de Broke and his family. The first production at the St Martin's was the spectacular Edwardian musical comedy ''Houp La!'', starring Gertie Millar, which opened on 23 November 1916. The producer was the impresario Charles B. Cochran, who took a 21-year lease on the new theatre.C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mystery Play
Mystery plays and miracle plays (they are distinguished as two different forms although the terms are often used interchangeably) are among the earliest formally developed plays in medieval Europe. Medieval mystery plays focused on the representation of Bible stories in churches as tableaux with accompanying antiphonal song. They told of subjects such as the Creation, Adam and Eve, the murder of Abel, and the Last Judgment. Often they were performed together in cycles which could last for days. The name derives from ''mystery'' used in its sense of ''miracle,'' but an occasionally quoted derivation is from ''ministerium'', meaning ''craft'', and so the 'mysteries' or plays performed by the craft guilds. Origins As early as the fifth century living tableaux were introduced into sacred services. The plays originated as simple ''tropes'', verbal embellishments of liturgical texts, and slowly became more elaborate. At an early period chants from the service of the day were added t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Entertainer
An entertainer is someone who provides entertainment in various different forms. Types of entertainers * Acrobat * Actor * Archimime * Athlete * Barker * Beatboxer * Benshi * Bouffon * Circus performer * Clown * Club Hostess/Host * Comedian * Dancer * Drag queen * Drag king * Emcee * Filmmaker * Flag throwing * Flair bartender * Flatulist * Geisha * Go-go dancer * Harlequin * Host * Illusionist * Impressionist * Internet celebrity * Itinerant poet * Japanese idol * Jester * Kobzar * Lirnyk * Magic (illusion), Magician * Master of ceremonies * Mime * Minstrel * Monologist * Musician * Painter * Party princess * Performer * Photographer * Podcaster * Poet * Pornographic actor * Promotional model * Radio personality * Rapper * Rhapsode * Ring girl * Ringmaster * Scop * Shamakhi dancers * Showgirl * Showman * Showrunner * Singer * Skomorokh * Streamer * Street performer * Stunt performer * Theatre practitioner * TikToker * TV celebrity * Vedette * Writer * YouTub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
West End Theatre
West End theatre is mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres in and near the West End of London.Christopher Innes, "West End" in ''The Cambridge Guide to Theatre'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 1194–1195, Along with New York City's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world. Seeing a West End show is a common tourist activity in London. Famous screen actors, British and international alike, frequently appear on the London stage. There are a total of 39 theatres in the West End, with the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, opened in May 1663, the oldest theatre in London. The Savoy Theatre – built as a showcase for the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan – was entirely lit by electricity in 1881. Opening in October 2022, @sohoplace is the first new West End theatre in 50 years. The Society of London Theatre (SOLT) announced ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank Lawton
Frank Lawton Mokeley (30 September 1904 – 10 June 1969) was an English actor. His parents were stage players Daisy May Collier and Frank Lawton (I). His first major screen credit was ''Young Woodley'' (1930). In the mid-1930s, Lawton appeared in some Hollywood films, most significantly as the adult David Copperfield in MGM's classic literature adaptation of ''David Copperfield'' (1935). However, Lawton never made his big breakthrough in Hollywood and returned to British film and theatre. He was married to actress Evelyn Laye from 1934 until his death in 1969 aged 64. They acted together several times, including in the TV series '' My Husband and I''. During World War II, he joined the British Army in the Kings Royal Rifle Corps and rose to the rank of major. He was assigned as a liaison officer to the U.S. Army and ultimately was awarded the Legion of Merit, Degree of Legionnaire for his service. In the West End, he appeared in Alex Atkinson Alex Atkinson (1916–1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lawrence Hanray
Laurence Hanray ( Lawrence Henry Jacobs; 16 May 1874 – 28 November 1947), sometimes credited as Lawrence Hanray, was a British film and theatre actor born in London, England. He is also credited as the author of several plays and music hall songs. Laurence Hanray was born Lawrence Henry Jacobs in St John's Wood on 16 May 1874, the son of Angelo Jacobs (c. 1851–1910), a glass manufacturer, and Leah (née Nathan; 1850/1851–1946). His father changed his name to Angelo Jacobs Hanray, and with it the family name, after becoming bankrupt in 1897, although Laurence had been using the name Hanray professionally from at least 1892, when he appeared as a member of the Hermann Vezin Theatre Company in supporting roles in ''Hamlet'' and ''Macbeth'' at Her Majesty's Theatre, Dundee. Australian newspapers show he was in Australia and New Zealand from around 1901–04, appearing as Carraway Bones the undertaker in the farce ''Turned Up'' at the Theatre Royal, Perth, in May 1901, and s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enid Stamp-Taylor
Enid Georgiana Stamp Taylor (12 June 1904 – 13 January 1946) was an English actress. Her childhood home was 17, Percy Avenue, in Whitley Bay, Northumberland, in what is now Tyne and Wear. Taylor first became known when she won a beauty pageant at a young age and this led to parts in musical comedies on stage, including ''The Cabaret Girl'' (1922), in which she was billed as simply "Enid Taylor". She progressed to film, appearing in Alfred Hitchcock's '' Easy Virtue'' (1928), ''Queen of Hearts'' (1934), and ''The Wicked Lady'' (1945). The Stamp part of her name was included as a middle name; it was her grandmother's maiden name. Taylor married Sidney Colton and they had a daughter called Robin Anne who was born in 1933. Her marriage to Colton was dissolved in 1936. On 9 January 1946 she fell in the bathroom of her Park Lane flat and suffered a fractured skull. She was unconscious for three days; she woke briefly following two operations at St George's Hospital in Wimbledo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cathleen Nesbitt
Cathleen Nesbitt (born Kathleen Mary Nesbitt; 24 November 18882 August 1982) was an English actress. Biography Born in Birkenhead, Cheshire,Before 1 April 1974 Birkenhead was in Cheshire England to Thomas and Mary Catherine (née Parry) Nesbitt as Kathleen Mary Nesbitt in 1888 of Welsh and Irish descent, she was educated in Lisieux, France, and at the Queen's University of Belfast and the Sorbonne. Her younger brother, Thomas Nesbitt, Jr., acted in one film in 1925, before his death in South Africa in 1927 from an apparent heart attack. She made her debut in London in the stage revival of Arthur Wing Pinero's ''The Cabinet Minister'' (1910). She acted in many plays after that. In 1911, she joined the Irish Players, went to the United States and debuted on Broadway in ''The Well of the Saints''. She also was in the cast of John Millington Synge's ''The Playboy of the Western World'' with the Irish Players when the whole cast was pelted with fruits and vegetables by the offend ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Whodunnit
A ''whodunit'' or ''whodunnit'' (a colloquial elision of "Who asdone it?") is a complex plot-driven variety of detective fiction in which the puzzle regarding who committed the crime is the main focus. The reader or viewer is provided with the clues to the case, from which the identity of the perpetrator may be deduced before the story provides the revelation itself at its climax. The investigation is usually conducted by an eccentric, amateur, or semi-professional detective. Concept A whodunit follows the paradigm of the classical detective story in the sense that it presents crime as a puzzle to be solved through a chain of questions that the detective poses. In a whodunit, however, the audience is given the opportunity to engage in the same process of deduction as the protagonist throughout the investigation of a crime. This engages the readers so that they strive to compete with or outguess the expert investigator. A defining feature of the whodunit narrative is the s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1932 Plays
Year 193 ( CXCIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Sosius and Ericius (or, less frequently, year 946 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 193 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * January 1 – Year of the Five Emperors: The Roman Senate chooses Publius Helvius Pertinax, against his will, to succeed the late Commodus as Emperor. Pertinax is forced to reorganize the handling of finances, which were wrecked under Commodus, to reestablish discipline in the Roman army, and to suspend the food programs established by Trajan, provoking the ire of the Praetorian Guard. * March 28 – Pertinax is assassinated by members of the Praetorian Guard, who storm the imperial palace. The Empire is auctioned off ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plays By John Van Druten
Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * Play Mobile, a Polish internet provider * Xperia Play, an Android phone * Rakuten.co.uk (formerly Play.com), an online retailer * Backlash (engineering), or ''play'', non-reversible part of movement * Petroleum play, oil fields with same geological circumstances * Play symbol, in media control devices Film * ''Play'' (2005 film), Chilean film directed by Alicia Scherson * ''Play'', a 2009 short film directed by David Kaplan * ''Play'' (2011 film), a Swedish film directed by Ruben Östlund * ''Rush'' (2012 film), an Indian film earlier titled ''Play'' and also known as ''Raftaar 24 x 7'' * ''The Play'' (film), a 2013 Bengali film Literature and publications * ''Play'' (play), written by Samuel Beckett * ''Play'' (''The New York Times' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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