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The Arts Council Playography Na Gaeilge

Plays

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The Millionairess

OVERVIEW

  • Playwright

    George Bernard (GB) Shaw 

  • Setting

    London, the mid-1930s.

  • Notes

    The Millionairess was first performed in German by the Burgtheater in Vienna on the 4th January 1936 and was performed by amateur groups in both England and Australia later in that same year. The details listed here refer to the first professional production in Dublin in 1938. The play's first West End production took place on 27 June 1952 at the New Theatre starring Katherine Hepburn in the role of Epifania.

  • Synopsis

    "Though this play of The Millionairess does not pretend to be anything more than a comedy of humorous and curious contemporary characters such as Ben Jonson might write were he alive now, yet it raises a question that has troubled human life and moulded human society since the creation" (Preface, 1935). A play about the gaps between rich and poor, later made into a popular 1960 film starring Peter Sellars and Sophia Loren.

  • Play Type

    Plays General

    Number Of Acts

    Full-Length

    • Cast size

  • Male

    6

  • Female

    3

  • Total

    9

Original Production

  • Date of First Production

    04 July 1938

  • Production Notes

    Produced by Sydney Russell.

  • Original Venue

    Gaiety Theatre

Original Cast  
Epifania Ognisanti di Parerga Fitzfassenden Marie Ney
Alastair Fitzfassenden Guy Spaull
Patricia Smith Betty Dorian
Julius Sagamore P.H. Considine
Adrian Blenderbland Robert Syers
The Doctor Miles Otway
The Man (Joe) Sydney Russell
The Woman ( the Man's Wife) Beatrice Low
Hotel Manager Allan McClelland
Production Team  
Director Sydney Russell

Published Scripts

  • Title

    The Bodley Head Bernard Shaw: Volume 6

  • Year

    1973

  • Published By

    The Bodley Head

  • Address

    England

  • ISBN

    0370102258

  • Title

    Plays Extravagant: Too True to be Good; The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles; The Millionairess

  • Year

    1991

  • Published By

    Penguin

  • Address

    80 Strand Street
    London WC2R 0RL
    England

  • Email

    customer.services@penguin.co.uk

  • Website

    www.penguin.co.uk

  • ISBN

    978-0140450316

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Rights Information

Source Of Information

The information for this entry was taken from press cuttings, the published script and Nicholas Grene and Deirdre McFeely's compilation "Shaw Productions in Ireland, 1900-2009" published in Shaw Vol. 10 (2010).