''Settled Out of Court'' is a 1960

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

thriller play Thriller may refer to: * Thriller (genre), a broad genre of literature, film and television ** Thriller film, a film genre under the general thriller genre Comics * ''Thriller'' (DC Comics), a comic book series published 1983–84 by DC Comics i ...

William Saroyan William Saroyan (; August 31, 1908 – May 18, 1981) was an Armenian-American novelist, playwright, and short story writer. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940, and in 1943 won the Academy Award for Best Story for the film ''The ...

and

Henry Cecil Sir Henry Richard Amherst Cecil (11 January 1943 – 11 June 2013) was a British flat racing horse trainer. Cecil was very successful, becoming Champion Trainer ten times and training 25 domestic Classic winners. These comprised four winners o ...

. It appeared at the Strand Theatre in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

's West End with a cast including

Nigel Patrick Nigel Patrick (born Nigel Dennis Patrick Wemyss-Gorman; 2 May 1912 – 21 September 1981) was an English actor and stage director born into a theatrical family. During the late 1940s and 1950s, he became known as a debonair leading man in Brit ...

Maxine Audley Maxine Audley (29 April 1923 – 23 July 1992) was an English theatre and film actress. She made her professional stage debut in July 1940 at the Open Air Theatre. Audley performed with the Old Vic company and the Royal Shakespeare Company many ...

Charles Heslop Charles Heslop (8 June 1883 in Thames Ditton, England – 13 April 1966) was a British actor. His stage successes include a musical version of '' Tons of Money'', which toured Australia for Hugh J. Ward in 1924, co-starring Dot Brunton. He ...

Eric Pohlmann Eric Pohlmann (german: Erich Pohlmann; born Erich Pollak; 18 July 1913 – 25 July 1979) was an Austrian theatre, film and television character actor who worked mostly in the United Kingdom. He is known for voicing Ernst Stavro Blofeld, th ...

, John Stratton,

Philip Guard Philip John Guard (born 29 November 1928 in Rochford, Essex) is an English stage actor. Guard has appeared occasionally in film and TV, but has been more prolific on stage. He was married to the actress Charlotte Mitchell who died in 2012; they s ...

and

Mary Hignett Mary Hignett (31 March 1916 – 6 July 1980) was a British actress. In the television series '' All Creatures Great and Small'', she played the role of the cook and housekeeper Edna Hall in the first three series, which ran from 1978 to 1980. O ...

. Patrick also directed the work. Adapted from Cecil's own 1959 novel ''Settled Out of Court'', the whole play takes place in the study of a high court judge Sir George Halliday. Although it received very poor reviews from critics, it was a popular success and ran for nearly a year.Kabatchnik p.360-62

References

Bibliography

* Amnon Kabatchnik. ''Blood on the Stage, 1950-1975: Milestone Plays of Crime, Mystery, and Detection''. Scarecrow Press, 2011. 1960 plays British plays West End plays Plays by William Saroyan Plays set in England comedy plays Thriller plays {{1960s-play-stub