Pygmalion
This specific production does not yet have a description, but the play itself does:
Pygmalion is a play by George Bernard Shaw, named after a Greek mythological character who fell in love with one of his sculptures which later came to life.
It was first presented on stage to the public in 1913.
Professor of phonetics Henry Higgins makes a bet that he can train a bedraggled Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, to pass for a duchess at a ball by teaching her to assume a veneer of gentility, the most important element of which, he believes, is impeccable speech. The play is a sharp lampoon of the rigid British class system of the day and a commentary on women’s independence.
Shaw mentioned that the character of Professor Henry Higgins was inspired by several British professors of phonetics: Alexander Melville Bell, Alexander J. Ellis, Tito Pagliardini, but above all, the cantankerous Henry Sweet.
Cast & Crew
Cast
A Bystander | Dennis Handby |
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Alfred Doolittle | Bob Hoskins |
Bystander | Fred Bryant |
Bystander | John Church |
Bystander | Joyce Donaldson |
Bystander | Jack Eden |
Bystander | Tony Leary |
Bystander | Angela Wallbank |
Bystander | Jeremy WAllis |
Clara Eynsford Hill | Sarah Atkinson |
Colonel Pickering | Jack May |
Eliza Doolittle | Diana Rigg |
Freddy Eynsford Hill | Anthony Naylor |
Mrs Eynsford Hill | Margaret Ward |
Mrs Higgins | Ellen Pollock |
Mrs Pearce | Hilda Fenemore |
Parlour Maid | Melanie Peck |
Professor Higgins | Alec McCowen |
Sarcastic Bystander | Simon MacCorkindale |
Crew | |
Designer | Jocelyn Herbert |
Designer | Andrew Sanders |
Director | John Dexter |
Lighting | Andy Phillips |
- Observations (3)
- Source: University of Bristol Theatre Collection
- Last modified by Michael Hope.
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Photographs
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Observations
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This is the cast list as found AT – http://www.sk96.de/sk_av.htm
May 16 – November 16 (limited run), Albery Theatre, London
Eliza Doolittle: Pygmalion (George Bernard Shaw); John Dexter; Jocelyn Herbert & Andrew Sanders. Miss Rigg’s costumes by Stephen Skaptason;Henry Higgins: Alec McCowen;
Clara Eynsford-Hill: Sarah Atkinson;
Mrs. Eynsford-Hill: Margaret Ward-,
Freddy Eynsford-Hill: Anthony Naylor;
Col. Pickering: Jack May;
Mrs. Pearce: Hilda Fenimore;
Alfred P. Doolittle: Bob Hoskins;
Mrs. Higgins: Ellen Pollock -
Simon Maccorkindale Sarcastic Bystander. (London Début.)
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I remember going with my English Literature O Level class to see this on a Saturday – I remember we had really good seats and how funny it was – I had forgotten Bob Hoskins was in it ( I was convinced it had been John Thaw!)
Also notable was that it was one of the few school trips to a play where one of us young philistines did not get asked to leave in disgrace for talking (or for lighting up a cigarette!)
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