A Man for All Seasons

A Man for All Seasons is a hugely popular play by English dramatist Robert Bolt (1924-1995) [1].

The original text

A compelling play about Sir Thomas More [2]. First produced in London on July 1 1960. It has subsequently been made into a hugely popular feature film and a television movie.

Published in New English Dramatists 6 edited by Tom Maschler. Penguin, 1963 and Three Plays by Robert Bolt. Mercury Books, 1963.

Performance history in South Africa

1962: First produced in South Africa for the opening of the Civic Theatre in Johannesburg on 26 September by Taubie Kushlick and Leon Gluckman. Directed by Margaret Webster, with sets by English designer Pamela Lewis. It starred William Roderick (Sir Thomas More), Michael Lovell (Henry VIII), Stuart Brown (Common Man), Hugh Rouse (Cromwell), Philip Birkinshaw (Duke of Norfolk), Yossie Graber, Ruth Bromley, Olive Wright, Phillip James, George Moore and Roger Spence.

1964: Staged by the Theatre Workshop Company in Natal, directed by Pieter Scholtz, with students of the University of Natal Department of Speech and Drama, including Roger Orton as Thomas More.

1978: According to Groucho at Large programme notes Derek Lyndon appeared as Randall P McMurphy in this play in South Africa in 1978.

1988: Presented by NAPAC Drama at the Monument Theatre in Grahamstown during the National Arts Festival. Direction was by Stephan Bouwer, costume design by Roux Engelbrecht, set design by Nicholas Ellenbogen, lighting design by Gavin Donaldson-Selby. The cast: Frantz Dobrowsky, Leon Eagles (Tomas More), David Muller, James Irwin, Patricia Eagles, Carol-Ann Kelleher, Pieter Scholtz, Eckard Rabe, Roger Dwyer, Aldo Brincat, David Dennis, Stephen Gurney, Dianne Weston, Barry Meehan.

Sources

Library catalogue, Stellenbosch University.

Theatre programme (1962) held by NELM: [Collection: GLUCKMAN, Leon]: 1995. 2. 1. 1. 59. and in other locations.

Review by Lewis Sowden, The Rand Daily Mail, 27 September 1962.

Theatre Workshop Company programme, 1964.

Petru & Carel Trichardt theatre programme collection.

National Arts Festival programme, 1988. 52-3.

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