The Shining Hour

The Shining Hour was a 1934 Broadway three act drama written by Keith Winter, produced by Max Gordon and staged by Raymond Massey with scenic design created by Aubrey Hammond. The setting is an Elizabethan farmhouse living room in Yorkshire. The visit of a sister-in-law rouses all sorts of emotional reactions in the family, leading to a suicide. The play ran for 121 performances from February 13, 1934 to May 1934 at the Booth Theatre. This was Gladys Cooper's Broadway debut. It was adapted into the 1938 film The Shining Hour directed by Frank Borzage and starring Joan Crawford, Robert Young, Margaret Sullavan and Melvyn Douglas.

In South Africa it was produced in 1941 by Ralph P. Kahn in the Muizenberg Pavilion.

This play was the Brian Brooke Company's opening production, produced by Brian Brooke in the Hofmeyr Hall opening 25 June 1946. The cast consisted of Cynthia Klette, Brian Brooke, Petrina Fry, Joyce Bradley, Walter Glennie, Michael Marais.

The play was included in Burns Mantle's The Best Plays of 1933-1934.

Sources

Trek, 2 January 1942, 20.

South African Opinion, 3(6):23; Trek, 11(1):18, 1946.

Brooke 1978. 145, 147, 150.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shining_Hour_(play)

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