''The French Mistress'' is a
comedy play
Comedy is a genre of dramatic performance having a light or humorous tone that depicts amusing incidents and in which the characters ultimately triumph over adversity. For ancient Greeks and Romans, a comedy was a stage-play with a happy endin ...
by the British entertainer
Sonnie Hale
John Robert Hale-Monro (1 May 1902 – 9 June 1959), known as Sonnie Hale, was an English actor, screenwriter, and director.
Early life
John Robert Hale-Monro was born in Kensington, London, the son of Belle Reynolds and actor Robert Hal ...
under the
pen name
A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen na ...
Robert Munro about the arrival of a new young French teacher at a traditional
public school
Public school may refer to:
* State school (known as a public school in many countries), a no-fee school, publicly funded and operated by the government
* Public school (United Kingdom), certain elite fee-charging independent schools in England an ...
.
It premiered at the
Wimbledon Theatre
The New Wimbledon Theatre is situated on the Broadway, Wimbledon, London, in the London Borough of Merton. It is a Grade II listed Edwardian theatre built by the theatre lover and entrepreneur, J. B. Mulholland. Built on the site of a large hou ...
in June 1955. Four years later it enjoyed a
West End run of 185 performances, first at the
Adelphi Theatre
The Adelphi Theatre is a West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster, central London. The present building is the fourth on the site. The theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, and today it is a receiv ...
before transferring to the
Prince's Theatre
The Shaftesbury Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Shaftesbury Avenue, in the London Borough of Camden. Opened in 1911 as the New Prince's Theatre, it was the last theatre to be built in Shaftesbury Avenue.
History
The theatre was d ...
. The cast included
Hugh Wakefield
Hugh Wakefield (10 November 1888 – 5 December 1971) was an English film actor, who played supporting roles. He was often seen wearing a monocle.
Hugh Claude Wakefield was born in Wanstead, Essex. He also had a distinguished stage career, whic ...
and
Richard Bird.
Cast and Performance Locations
Performed at The Adelphi Theatre, Strand, London, 13 Jun 1959; presented by Jack Hylton; directed by Joan Riley; settings by Denis Wreford
Transferred to: The Prince's Theatre, London, closing performance, 21 Nov 1959; The Theatre Royal, Windsor, Apr 1959
Originally at: The Wimbledon Theatre, 20 Jun 1955; directed by Robert Monro
On tour: 1956: The Lyceum, Edinburgh
Casts: Sonnie Hale, Kathleen St John, John Law, Nigel Beard, Robin Lloyd, Juliet Winsor, Bruce Heighley, Kenneth Outwin, Olive Milbourne, Sydney King, Nicholas Stevenson, Gary Watson, Susan Maryott, Anthony Green, Richard Ives, Colin Wall, Christopher Sandford, Kenneth Laird,
Richard Bird, Rosamond Burne, Peter Gray, Scot Finch, Michael Meacham, Marie-Claire Verlene,
Pearson Dodd Pearson may refer to:
Organizations Education
*Lester B. Pearson College, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
*Pearson College (UK), London, owned by Pearson PLC
*Lester B. Pearson High School (disambiguation)
Companies
*Pearson PLC, a UK-based int ...
, Richard Fox, Peter Greenspan, David Lord, Hugh Wakefield
Adaptation
In 1960 it was turned into a film ''
A French Mistress
''A French Mistress'' is a 1960 British comedy film directed by Roy Boulting and starring Cecil Parker, James Robertson Justice, Agnès Laurent, Ian Bannen, Raymond Huntley, Irene Handl and Thorley Walters.
It is based on a stage play, ''The F ...
'' directed by
Roy Boulting
John Edward Boulting (21 December 1913 – 17 June 1985) and Roy Alfred Clarence Boulting (21 December 1913 – 5 November 2001), known collectively as the Boulting brothers, were English filmmakers and identical twins who became known for thei ...
and starring
Cecil Parker
Cecil Parker (born Cecil Schwabe, 3 September 1897 – 20 April 1971) was an English actor with a distinctively husky voice, who usually played supporting roles, often characters with a supercilious demeanour, in his 91 films made between ...
,
Agnès Laurent,
James Robertson Justice
James Robertson Justice (15 June 1907 – 2 July 1975) was a British actor. He is best remembered for portraying pompous authority figures in comedies including each of the seven films in the ''Doctor'' series. He also co-starred with Grego ...
and
Ian Bannen
Ian Edmund Bannen (29 June 1928 – 3 November 1999) was a Scottish actor with a long career in film, on stage, and on television. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in '' The Flight of the Phoenix'' (1965), the first ...
.
[Goble p.338] (The same theme should be compared to
Tamahine
''Tamahine'' is a 1963 British comedy film directed by Philip Leacock and starring Nancy Kwan, Dennis Price and John Fraser. It is a film about a Polynesian woman who believes she can change the culture of Hallow School, a British boys' boardin ...
, 1963, by
).
References
Bibliography
* Goble, Alan. ''The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film''. Walter de Gruyter, 1999.
* Wearing, J.P. ''The London Stage 1950-1959: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel''. Rowman & Littlefield, 2014.
1955 plays
Comedy plays
British plays adapted into films
West End plays
{{1950s-play-stub