Ruth (Shell Presents)

Cal, is a lonely man, whose mother did not show him much affection. He is a neighbour to Ruth, a woman with mental problems. Cal's mother and neighbours have attitudes about it.

• Lyndall Barbour as Ruth
• John Glennon as Cal
• Edward Howell
• Jeannie James
• Barbara Brandon
• Agnes Dobson
• Lorna Stirling
• Murielle Hearne
• Betty Randall
• Wyn McAlpin
• Wyn Pullman

John Glennon arrived in Melbourne on 8 August 1959 to present two plays for GTV-9, starting with "Ruth"'. He was also to help coach Australian writers and producers on US drama techniques.{{cite news|newspaper=The Age|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=MDQ-9Oe3GGUC&dat=19590806&printsec=frontpage&hl=en|date=6 August 1959|title=Untitled|page=14}} According to Filmink "Glennon is one of a number of people who came down under in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s to help “instruct” Australians how to make television drama... This was very much in the long tradition of Australian cultural institutions being impressed by a foreign accent, particularly one from England or America "

The producers wanted Lydall Barbour to play the lead. She was tracked down to a hotel room in Paris and John Glennon travelled from London to persuade her to accept the part. The play was produced in Melbourne at the GTV 9 studios.{{cite news|newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald|title=Women dominate cast|date=14 September 1959|page=13|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/121556192/?terms=%22tongue%2Bof%2Bsilver%22}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article189921465 |title=TV Highlights |newspaper=The Biz |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=16 September 1959 |accessdate=14 September 2017 |page=5 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{Cite news|first=Valda|last=Marshall|newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/121555542/?terms=ruth%2B%22john%2Bglennon%22|date=13 September 1959|page=102|title=Across the world for a one hour show}}

While rehearsing it Glennon said he was working on a play about Australians in London.{{cite news|newspaper=The Age|title=Untitled|date=3 September 1959|page=15|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=u-00AAAAIBAJ&sjid=UbsDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4448%2C493170}}

The TV critic from the Sydney Morning Herald called it "a highly original and diverting play" where Glennon's writing was "in an attractively inventive and individual way that sometimes shades into the eccentric". He said "the play's great fault is that its ingredients are too rich for comfortable compression into an hour. It needs more time and space to develop ideas ana incidents too arbitrarily imposed in this production."{{cite news|newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald|title=Shell Play Presented By ATN 7|page=6|date=21 September 1959|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/121561960/?terms=ruth%2B%22john%2Bglennon%22}}

The Age TV critic wrote that those viewers "who got the message" would have found the play "interesting. For those who didn't it could have been a bit of a bore."{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=MDQ-9Oe3GGUC&dat=19590910&printsec=frontpage&hl=en|newspaper=The Age|date=10 September 1959|title=Mixed Feelings About Ruth|page=14}}

Filmink said it was "no classic but it's interesting and it gave Lyndall Barbour a terrific part." The review elaborated:

Glennon’s script contains a lot of tropes used in 1950s American drama – the eccentric older female, who lives life on her own terms and inspires a lonely boy protagonist to break free of an overprotective mother and follow his dreams... It’s not bad. It’s very familiar and scripts about sensitive boys who secretly dream of playing the guitar automatically deserve some sort of fine, but it has integrity, the two leads combine well together, and after a while I got into the play’s rhythms.{{cite magazine|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-australian-television-plays-ruth/|magazine=Filmink|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|date=30 July 2023|title=Forgotten Australian Television Plays: Ruth}}

Another version aired as a BBC Sunday-Night Play in 1962, starring Constance Cummings, again written by John Glennon, and this time directed by Henry Kaplan.

{{reflist}}

• {{IMDb episode|1385011}}
• [http://colsearch.nfsa.gov.au/nfsa/search/display/display.w3p;adv=;group=;groupequals=;holdingType=;page=0;parentid=;query=Id%3A270620%7CId%3A19219%7CId%3A546800%7CId%3A547648%7CId%3A23058;querytype=;rec=4;resCount=10 "Ruth"] at National Film and Sound Archive

{{Rod Kinnear}}

Category:1950s Australian television plays

Category:1959 Australian television episodes

Category:1959 television plays

Category:Shell Presents