RARE BBC LPs: Arden of Faversham (Anonymous 1592 play)

$

50

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Transcription Service

EXTREMELY RARE 2-Disc recording of

ARDEN OF FAVERSHAM

an

Anonymous 16th century play

A 1592 Murder Play Performed for the BBC's World Theatre series and originally broadcast as part of the
National Theatre of the Air series

     This auction is for a two-disc recording of Arden of Faversham, a murder play first printed in 1592.   The play was so good that some have thought only Shakespeare could have written it.  It was printed as Shakespeare's.  Based on an actual murder in Kent, it keeps true in every detail to the facts--and what facts!  Eight times Alice Arden, her lover Mosbie, and their hired dagger-men try to kill Alice's husband.  The play is a relentless tread of assassination, the drama made up of missed blows, botched attempts, and missed chances before Arden is at last struck down at his own table.  The tension is so built up that there is a kind of relief in his murder when it does happen.  The discover of the crime, by the clues left behind, makes Arden of Faversham a splendid horror play in poetry.

     The title sheet of the first published edition of the play descibed the play as:

The Lamentable and True Tragedy of Master Arden of Faversham in Kent.  Who was most wickedly murdered by the means of his disloyal and wanton wife, who, for the love she bore to one Mosbie, hired two desperate ruffians, Black Will and Shakebag, to kill him.  Wherein is shewed the great malice and dissimulation of a wicked woman, the unsatiable desire of filthy lust, and the shameful end of all murderers

     The script of this recording was adapted for the original broadcast in 1955 and produced by Raymond Raikes.  Critics of the broadcast described it as "an amazingly modern thriller; crisp, creepie all the way."  Another wrote that not only was it felt to be an early and powerful example of realistic murder-drama, but that its author was a minor Defoe among the lesser Elizabethan playwrights; for where they busied themselves with kings and princes and their great diapason of vocal melody, he was content to write of ordinary people in the very ordinary speech of the England of his time.  And how extraordinarily like this speech was to the ordinary speech of today.

     The author of the play is unknown.  Many think that several authors had a hand in writing it, including Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Kyd and several lesser authors who were content to dramatize a singularly gruesome murder story that happened to be true (Holinshed's Chronicles allocated five pages to the Arden murder in the 1577 edition).

     This BBC Transcription Service recording is exceptionally rare.  The use of the discs was restricted to broadcasting stations authorized by the BBC and had specific dates for when they were to be removed from service and destroyed.  Nearly all of the 2-disc sets for this production, as well as other plays in the BBC World Theatre Series of recordings, no longer exist.  This particular set was broadcast five times at a small midwestern college FM station and had an expiry date of April 25, 1966.  It has been in my private collection for more than 40 years and is still in the BBC supplied buff-colored sleeves (the dates of the five broadcasts have been written on each sleeve).  The performance, on two 12" 33RPM vinyl LPs, lasts a little less than 88 minutes.

     The cast for this recording includes the following actors and actresses:

June Tobin (Alice, wife of Thomas Arden); Godfrey Kenton (Thomas Arden); Derek Blomfield (Adam Fowle); Hugh Burden (Mosbie); John Forest (Michael); Philip Morant (Franklin); Michael Spice (Dick Greene); Kenneth Dight (Bradshaw); Valentine Dyal (Black Will); Norman Shelley (Shakebag); John Pullen (Lord Cheney); William Eedle (Ferryman) and Earle Grey (Mayor of Faversham).

     This recording, aside from being particularly rare, would be of great interest to persons with some knowledge and concern with British theatre.  It might be a wonderful addition to a public school, university theatre department or private library of theatre-oriented materials.  As should be expected of vinyl discs of this age, there is some sporadic surface noise but not enough to detract from the quality of the performances.

     I will be listing other rare BBC World Theatre recordings this week including Arden of Faversham, The Hippolytus of Euripides and The Electra of Sophocles.  For those with an interest in Shakespeare, please see my listing for the complete 15-part BBC "Living Shakespeare" series that was originally broadcast on the BBC Network Three in 1958.