''The Secretary Bird'' is a British stage play by

William Douglas Home William Douglas Home (3 June 1912 – 28 September 1992) was a British dramatist and politician. Early life Douglas-Home (he later dropped the hyphen from his surname) was the third son of Charles Douglas-Home, 13th Earl of Home, and Lady Lili ...

. The original run starred

Kenneth More Kenneth Gilbert More, Order of the British Empire#Current classes, CBE (20 September 1914 – 12 July 1982) was an English film and stage actor. Initially achieving fame in the comedy ''Genevieve (film), Genevieve'' (1953), he appeared in many ...

who appeared in it for a year. He described the play as "simple and straightforward, and has some witty dialogue." It was the biggest stage success of More's career. It was adapted into an Italian film ''

Duck in Orange Sauce ''L'anatra all'arancia'' (internationally released as ''Duck in Orange Sauce'') is a 1975 Italian comedy film based upon the play by William Douglas-Home and Marc-Gilbert Sauvajon. It was directed by Luciano Salce. For this film Monica Vitti was aw ...

''.

Premise

A married man worries his wife his having an affair so he tries to make her jealousy with his secretary.

Reception

William Home wrote it at a time when sex comedies were out of fashion and the play was turned down by thirteen managers before being picked up by Tony Roye. It toured successfully in the provinces then made it to the West End with Kenneth More in the lead and produced by John Gale. The play was very successful. Peter Saunders estimated it cost £6,500 to put on and made a profit of more than £300,000. The play was seen by

Noel Coward Noel or Noël may refer to: Christmas * , French for Christmas * Noel is another name for a Christmas carol Places * Noel, Missouri, United States, a city *Noel, Nova Scotia, Canada, a community * 1563 Noël, an asteroid *Mount Noel, Britis ...

who wrote in his diary for 3 November 1968:

I saw ''The Secretary Bird'', which was not bad and much enhanced by Kenny More, who is a lovely, deft comedian in the proper Hawtrey, Du Maurier, Coward tradition! In fact he doesn’t apparently make any effort to get his effects and manages to get every one. No asking for laughs or begging for attention. Very satisfactory.

The play had a successful run in Australia starring Patrick Macnee.

1969 TV version

Scenes from the play aired on television in 1969 as an episode of ''Theatre Date''.

Cast

*Jane Downs as the wife *Terence Longdon as the admirer *Judith Arthy as the secretary

References

External links

*Complete copy of play at
''The Secretary Bird'' 1969 TV version
at

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British plays 1968 plays {{1960s-play-stub