The Wooden Dish

The Wooden Dish is a play by Odessa-born American writer Edmund Morris (1912-1998)[].

The original text

A play about the cold war between a housewife and her father-in-law whom she has been trying to dislodge ever since she got married, and her husband, tossed helplessly from one loyalty to another, it was originally produced in London where it met with great critical acclaim,

Later produced on Broadway and at the Hanna Theatre in Cleveland, Ohio in 1955.

The text published by Samuel French, 1950

Translations and adaptations

Adapted as a TV drama, broadcast as an episode of the TV Series Play of the Week and aired 20 March, 1961 by National Educational Television (NET) (1961) (USA)

Translated into Afrikaans entitled Oupa en die Houtbord for a production by Peaat.

Translated into Afrikaans and adapted as a radio text called Die Houtbord for the SABC by Jan Schutte. Broadcast in the program Radioteater on the Afrikaans service of the SABC on 4 May, 1962 at 19h30. A copy of the script is held in the Drama Department archives, University of Stellenbosch.

Performance history in South Africa

1955: programme for the Johannesburg Repertory Players' production produced by Anthony Farmer with settings by him at the Reps Theatre, Johannesburg, from 15 March to 9 April 1955, and at the Groot Kerksaal, Pretoria, from 8 - 12 March 1955, in Playtime no. 104 of March 1955.

1960: Produced by the Dramatic Society of East London.

19??: Performed in Afrikaans as Oupa en die Houtbord by PEAAT (the Port Elizabethse Afrikaanse Amateur Toneelvereniging).