Escape (play)


Escape is a play in nine episodes by the British writer John Galsworthy. The world premiere was on August 12, 1926 at the Ambassadors Theatre in London's West End, produced by Leon M. Lion. The play ran until March of the following year, when it went on tour of England with Gerald Ames in the lead role.
Subsequently, the play transferred to Broadway where it was produced and staged by Winthrop Ames . The American production ran for 173 performances from 26 October 1927 to March 1928 at the Booth Theatre, New York City. It was included in Burns Mantle's The Best Plays of 1927–1928.
The play was made into a film in 1930.

Plot

Former World War I British Army Captain Matt Denant protects a poor prostitute from an over-persistent plainclothes police detective. In a scuffle Denant hits the dick who as a result falls, striking his head, and dies. Denant gets sentenced to Dartmoor Prison for manslaughter and escapes from a work detail. The plot is a series of episodes where Denant meets people who will either abet or obstruct his escape thus becoming a study in class structure and ethos according to Galsworthy's interpretation of 1920s British society.

Cast of UK Premiere in order of appearanceThe Magazine - Programme No.605, Grantley & Co.Ltd, 28 Leicester Square, London WC2

Escape was adapted for the 1930 film Escape, and remade in 1948.
A radio adaptation of play was broadcast in two parts August 15 and August 22, 1937, on the Columbia Workshop. Orson Welles starred as Captain Matt Denant.
The play was adapted for the October 15, 1939, episode of the CBS Radio series The Campbell Playhouse. The cast included Orson Welles, Wendy Barrie, Ray Collins, Jack Smart, Edgar Barrier, Bea Benaderet, Harriet Kay, Mabel Albertson and Benny Rubin.