"Ruth"
Shell Presents episode
The Age ad 3 Sep 1959
Episode no.Season 1
Episode 7
Directed byRod Kinnear
Teleplay byJohn Glennon
Original air date5 September 1959 (1959-09-05)

"Ruth" is a 1959 Australian television play. It was presented as part of the Shell Presents program and starred Lyndall Barbour. It was written by John Glennon, an American actor and writer who appeared in the production, and directed by Rod Kinnear. The play aired in Melbourne on 5 September 1959[1][2] and in Sydney on 19 September 1959.[3]

It was "a saga of older/woman/younger lover."[4][5]

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

Production

John Glennon 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.[6]

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.[7][8][9]

While rehearsing it Glennon said he was working on a play about Australians in London.[10]

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."[11]

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."[12]

Filmink said it was "no classic but it's interesting and it gave Lyndall Barbour a terrific part."[13]

1962 adaptation

Another version aired as a BBC Sunday-Night Play in 1962, starring Constance Cummings, again written by John Glennon, and this time directed by Henry Kaplan.

1962 Cast

Constance Cummings ... Ruth Anipas
Maxwell Shaw ... Nick Anipas
Doris Nolan ... Mrs. Richey
Fiona Duncan ... Katherine Anipas
Nicholas Bennett ... Cal Richey
Louise Howard ... Miss Swanson
Helen Horton ... Nurse
Anne Padwick ... Mrs. Kanakaris
Daphne Newton ... Mrs. Stimpokas

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. ↑ McPherson, Ailsa (2007). "Dramas and Dreams at Epping: Early Days of ATN-7's Drama Production". In Liz, Liz; Dolin, Tim (eds.). Australian Television History. ACH: The Journal of the History of Culture in Australia. Australian Public Intellectual Network. p. 161.
  5. ↑ Vagg, Stephen (18 February 2019). "60 Australian TV Plays of the 1950s & '60s". Filmink.
  6. ↑ "Untitled". The Age. 6 August 1959. p. 14.
  7. ↑ "Women dominate cast". Sydney Morning Herald. 14 September 1959. p. 13.
  8. ↑ "TV Highlights". The Biz. New South Wales, Australia. 16 September 1959. p. 5. Retrieved 14 September 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  9. ↑ Marshall, Valda (13 September 1959). "Across the world for a one hour show". Sydney Morning Herald. p. 102.
  10. ↑ "Untitled". The Age. 3 September 1959. p. 15.
  11. ↑ "Shell Play Presented By ATN 7". Sydney Morning Herald. 21 September 1959. p. 6.
  12. ↑ "Mixed Feelings About Ruth". The Age. 10 September 1959. p. 14.
  13. ↑ Vagg, Stephen (30 July 2023). "Forgotten Australian Television Plays: Ruth". Filmink.
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