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Spoiled (play)

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}

{{Infobox play

| name = Spoiled

| image = Spoiled_(play).jpg

| image_size =

| caption = Poster of original West End production

| writer = Simon Gray

| characters =

| genre = Drama

| setting = The home of a schoolmaster

| premiere = 24 February 1971

| place = The Close Theatre Club, Glasgow

| orig_lang = English

| web = http://simongray.org.uk/spoiled.html

}}

Spoiled is a television and stage play by Simon Gray, first broadcast by the BBC in 1968 as part of The Wednesday Play series and later adapted for the stage.{{cite web|author=Andrew Mortimer and Anthony Wilks, comp.|url=http://simongray.org.uk/spoiled.html|title=The Official Simon Gray Website: Spoiled|access-date=15 October 2010}} It is set over a single weekend in the house of a schoolmaster, Howarth, who invites one of his O-Level French students to his home to do some last-minute cramming before an exam. Howarth has an almost unnatural enthusiasm, while his student, Donald, is painfully shy. Meanwhile, Howarth's pregnant wife is far from happy about having someone to stay in the midst of her fears about parenting.{{Cite web|url=https://www.dramaonlinelibrary.com/plays/spoiled-iid-134665|title=Spoiled - Drama Online|website=dramaonlinelibrary.com}}

Characters

  • Howarth
  • Donald
  • Joanna
  • Les
  • Mrs Clenham

Television production

Spoiled was originally a play written for the BBC's The Wednesday Play series, broadcast first on 28 August 1968, and again on 9 July 1969.{{Cite web|url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/987eb73ba8534ac5a9c65884b2ae5f3a|title=The Wednesday Play: Spoiled|date=9 July 1969|issue=2382|pages=37|via=BBC Genome}} It was directed by Waris Hussein and produced by Graeme MacDonald.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b76f2bc5b|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190505113148/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b76f2bc5b|url-status=dead|archive-date=5 May 2019|title=Spoiled (1968)|website=BFI}} Believed to be lost,[http://www.lostshows.com/default.aspx?episode=610e5602-c3e6-4210-a3a9-3749f63b4579 "Missing episode in programme The Wednesday Play], lostshows.com it had the following cast: The production was wiped after broadcast and no copies are known to exist.

Stage

Spoiled was adapted by the author for the stage and first performed at the Close Theatre Club, Glasgow, in 1970, directed by Stephen Hollis. It had the following cast:{{Cite web|url=https://simongray.org.uk/plays/spoiled/|title=Spoiled}}

The play was then performed at the Haymarket Theatre, London, also directed by Stephen Hollis, from 24 February 1971.{{Cite web|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/simon-gray-playwright-novelist-and-author-of-a-series-of-hilarious-irascible-memoirs-888235.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220524/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/simon-gray-playwright-novelist-and-author-of-a-series-of-hilarious-irascible-memoirs-888235.html |archive-date=24 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Simon Gray: Playwright, novelist and author of a series of hilarious|date=8 August 2008|website=The Independent}} It had the following cast:

Australian TV version

{{Infobox television

| image =

| caption =

| director = John Croyston

| producer = John Croyston

| writer = Simon Gray

| based_on = play by Simon Gray

| narrator =

| starring = Peter Carroll
Judith Fisher
Tony Sheldon

| music =

| cinematography =

| editor =

| company = ABC

| network = ABC

| released = {{Start date|1974|11|02|df=y}}{{cite news|title=TV Guide|newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=28 October 1974|page= 11}}

| runtime = 110 minutes

| country = Australia

| language = English

| budget =

}}

The film was adapted for Australian TV in 1974. It was one of a number of stage productions filmed by the ABC in the early 1970s. For Spoiled the ABC filmed an adaptation of a production of the play at the Independent Theatre. Others that year included Hamlet, The Misanthrope and A Hard God.Ed. Scott Murray, Australia on the Small Screen 1970-1995, Oxford Uni Press, 1996 p146

=Cast=

=Reception=

The Age felt it was "a gay play that had nothing to say... incident outweighed insight."{{cite news|newspaper=The Age|date=13 November 1974|page= 2|title=More to the mind than jet era black magic}}

References

{{Reflist}}

Sources

  • Gray, Simon. Simon Gray: Plays 1. London, Faber and Faber, 2010.
  • {{IMDb title|0063637}}
  • [http://simongray.org.uk/spoiled.html Simon Gray website]

{{Wednesday Play}}

{{John Croyston}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spoiled}}

Category:1968 television plays

Category:1971 plays

Category:1974 films

Category:BBC television dramas

Category:Lost BBC episodes

Category:West End plays

Category:1970s English-language films

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