Eh? (play) explained

Eh?
Premiere:October, 1964
Place:Aldwych Theatre, London

Eh? is a play by Henry Livings.

Production history

Original Production

The play premièred at the Aldwych Theatre in London's West End, produced as part of the Royal Shakespeare Companys London Season, in October 1964 and featured David Warner, Donald Sinden and Janet Suzman and was directed by Peter Hall.[1]

Subsequent productions

Two years later it opened Off-Broadway at the Circle in the Square Downtown on Bleecker Street on October 16, 1966. The production was directed by Alan Arkin, using the pseudonym "Roger Short". Arkin had stepped in as director about two weeks before it opened and after two directors had quit. He used a pseudonym because he was under contract to begin direction of Hail Scrawdyke! only a week later.[2]

The US production starred Dustin Hoffman as Valentine Brose, Alexandra Berlin as Betty Dorrick, Dana Elcar as Price, Carl Gabler as Aly, Joseph Maher as Reverend Mort and Elizabeth Wilson as Mrs. Murray. The play was the first major critical success in Hoffman's career, garnering him a Theatre World Award and Drama Desk Award for his performance. Livings won an Obie Award for Best Play. This production closed on May 24, 1967, after 233 performances.

Film adaptation

It was adapted for the 1967 film Work Is a Four-Letter Word by Jeremy Brooks, starring David Warner and Cilla Black.[3]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Henry Livings Plays One Eh? Honour and Offer Stop It Whoever You Are the Ffinest Ffamily in the Land Don't Touch Him He Might Resent It . 2015-03-09 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20150402162641/http://oberonbooks.com/modern-playwrights/livings-plays-one . 2015-04-02 .
  2. The H. W. Wilson Company. "Alan Arkin" . Biography (1967). Retrieved 2010-12-12.
  3. Amazon. "Work Is a 4-Letter Word". Internet Movie Database (1968). Retrieved 2010-11-09.