Billy Liar
Billy Liar is a play by Keith Waterhouse [1] (1929-2009) and Willis Hall [2] (1929-2005).
Contents
The original text
The play is a three-act stage adaptation of Waterhouse's 1959 novel Billy Liar [3].
It tells the story of the compulsive liar Billy Fisher, who has an uninspiring dead-end job as an undertaker's assistant and lives at home with his family in a sleepy Yorkshire town. His three fiancées fail to keep him adequately occupied and Billy leads a second life in his imagination. Billy's problems come when he is unable to separate fantasy from reality, and so embroils himself in a web of tangled lies, with painfully comic results. [4]
First performed in 1960, the text published by Samuel French.
Translations and adaptations
A film version was made in 1963,
Performance history in South Africa
1961: Performed at the Alexander Theatre starring Michael McGovern as Billy, opening in November.
1966: Staged by the University of Cape Town Drama Department in The Little Theatre, directed by Rosalie van der Gucht, with a cast including Peter Kruger as Billy and Joyce Burch as Florence.
1968: Presented by The Sandowners, starring , among others, Brenda Wood.
1985: Presented by NAPAC at the Alhambra Theatre, Durban, directed by Erica Rogers, from 11 March 1985. The cast: Dai Bradley, John Hussey, Pat Sanders, Susie Gehr, David Butler, Mandy Wildman and Beverly Goodin.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Liar#Play
https://www.amazon.com/Billy-Liar-Play-Waterhouse-Hall/dp/0237490269
The Amorous Prawn programme notes, 1961.
Little Theatre programme, 1966.
Theatre programme held by NELM: [Collection: KORT, Maurice]: 2012. 379. 6. 56. (NAPAC 1985).
Report by Raeford Daniel, The Rand Daily Mail, 10 January 1985.
Go to ESAT Bibliography
Return to
Return to PLAYS I: Original SA plays
Return to PLAYS II: Foreign plays
Return to PLAYS III: Collections
Return to PLAYS IV: Pageants and public performances
Return to South African Festivals and Competitions
Return to The ESAT Entries
Return to Main Page
