The Admirable Crichton

The Admirable Crichton is a comic stage play written in 1902 by J. M. Barrie.

Roles and opening night cast list

Productions

It was produced by Charles Frohman and opened at the Duke of York's Theatre in London on 4 November 1902, running for an extremely successful 828 performances. It starred H. B. Irving as Crichton and Irene Vanbrugh as Lady Mary Lasenby.

In 1903, the play was produced on Broadway by Frohman, starring William Gillette as Crichton and Sybil Carlisle as Lady Mary.

George C. Tyler revived it at the New Amsterdam Theatre in New York in 1931 starring Walter Hampden as Crichton, Hubert Bruce at the Earl of Loam and Fay Bainter as Lady Mary Lasenby.

The play was revived in London in 1989 with Edward Fox as Crichton, and the newly knighted Rex Harrison as Lord Loam. Harrison's mentor Gerald Du Maurier played the nephew in the original production.

The Admirable Crichton (1918 film)

The Admirable Crichton is a 1918 British silent comedy film directed by G.B. Samuelson and starring Basil Gill, Mary Dibley and James Lindsay. It was based on the 1902 play The Admirable Crichton by J.M. Barrie.

In 1919 it was filmed by Cecil B. DeMille as Male and Female starring Gloria Swanson.

Plot summary

When they are stranded on a desert island, an aristocratic family fall increasingly under the sway of their charismatic, competent butler.

Cast

References

External links

The Admirable Crichton (1957 film)

The Admirable Crichton (released in the United States as Paradise Lagoon) is a 1957 British comedy film directed by Lewis Gilbert and starring Kenneth More, Diane Cilento, Cecil Parker, and Sally Ann Howes. The film was based on J. M. Barrie's 1902 stage comedy of the same name.

Plot

In 1905 William Crichton (Kenneth More) is the efficient butler in the London household of the Earl of Loam (Cecil Parker) and his family. Crichton knows his place in the highly class-conscious English society. The Earl insists that all men are equal, and to prove it, he orders his daughters to treat the staff as guests during an uncomfortable afternoon tea. Lady Brocklehurst (Martita Hunt) arrives and strongly disapproves of the arrangement, as does Crichton.

When Lady Catherine (Mercy Haystead), one of the Earl's daughters, is arrested at a suffragette protest, Crichton recommends the family take a trip on the Earl's steam yacht to the South Seas until the scandal dies down. When the yacht's motors explode during a storm, all are forced to abandon ship. By the time Crichton rescues the still sleeping "tweeny" maid Eliza (Diane Cilento), the lifeboats have already departed. They jump into the water and are picked up by the wrong boat, the one reserved for the upper class.

James Crichton

James Crichton, known as the Admirable Crichton (19 August 1560 – 3 July 1582), was a Scottish polymath noted for his extraordinary accomplishments in languages, the arts, and sciences before he was killed at the age of 21.

Life

One of the most gifted individuals of the 16th century, James Crichton of Clunie (Perthshire; although some sources maintain his birthplace was Dumfries), was the son of Robert Crichton of Eliok, Lord Advocate of Scotland, and Elizabeth Stewart, from whose line James could claim Royal descent.

Educated at St Andrews University between the ages of ten to fourteen, during which time he completed requirements for both his bachelor's and master's degrees, James was taught by the celebrated Scottish scholar, politician and poet George Buchanan (1506–1582). It was apparent from his earliest days that James was an unusually gifted prodigy, which may have been associated with a gift for perfect recall. By the age of twenty, he was not only fluent in, but could discourse in (both prose and verse) no fewer than twelve languages, as well as being an accomplished horseman, fencer, singer, musician, orator, and debater. Noted for his good looks as well as his refined social graces, he was considered to have come closest to the ideal of the complete man.