''The Corn Is Green'' is a 1938 semi-

autobiographical An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

play by Welsh dramatist and actor

Emlyn Williams George Emlyn Williams, CBE (26 November 1905 – 25 September 1987) was a Welsh writer, dramatist and actor. Early life Williams was born into a Welsh-speaking, working class family at 1 Jones Terrace, Pen-y-ffordd, Ffynnongroyw, Flints ...

. The play premiered in London at the

Duchess Theatre The Duchess Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster, London, located in Catherine Street near Aldwych. The theatre opened on 25 November 1929 and is one of the smallest West End theatres with a proscenium arch. It has 494 sea ...

in September 1938; with

Sybil Thorndike Dame Agnes Sybil Thorndike, Lady Casson (24 October 18829 June 1976) was an English actress whose stage career lasted from 1904 to 1969. Trained in her youth as a concert pianist, Thorndike turned to the stage when a medical problem with her ...

as Miss Moffat and Williams himself portraying Morgan Evans, the West End production ran in all for 600 performances. The original Broadway production starred

Ethel Barrymore Ethel Barrymore (born Ethel Mae Blythe; August 15, 1879 – June 18, 1959) was an American actress and a member of the Barrymore family of actors. Barrymore was a stage, screen and radio actress whose career spanned six decades, and was regard ...

and premiered at the National Theatre in November 1940, running for 477 performances.

Plot

L.C. Moffat is a strong-willed English school teacher working in a poverty-stricken coal mining village in late 19th century

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

. She struggles to win the local Welsh miners over to her English ways, and an illiterate teenager by the name of Morgan Evans eventually graduates with honours.

Background

Born in 1905, Emlyn Williams grew up in the impoverished coal-mining town of

Mostyn Mostyn is a village and community in Flintshire, Wales, and electoral ward lying on the estuary of the River Dee, located near the town of Holywell. It has a privately owned port that has in the past had a colliery and ironworks and was invo ...

Flintshire , settlement_type = County , image_skyline = , image_alt = , image_caption = , image_flag = , image_shield = Arms of Flint ...

, Wales, and spoke only Welsh until the age of eight. He was barely literate, and later said he would probably have begun working in the mines at age 12 if he had not caught the attention of a London social worker named Sarah Grace Cooke. She established a school in Mostyn in 1915, and recognized Williams' aptitude for languages. Over the next seven years she worked with him on his English and helped him prepare to be a teacher. She obtained a scholarship for him in Switzerland, to study French, and when he was 17 she helped him win a scholarship at

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniq ...

. During his studies there Williams had a nervous breakdown, but Cooke encouraged him to write as a way to recover. His first play, ''Full Moon'', was produced while he was still at Oxford. His first success, ''A Murder Has Been Arranged'', was staged in 1930, followed by the hit thriller, '' Night Must Fall'' (1935). ''The Corn Is Green'' is considered Williams' most enduring literary credit.

Production

London production

''The Corn Is Green'', directed by the author, premiered on September 20, 1938 at the

in London, following a five-week tour that began on August 15. The outbreak of war forced the closure of the Duchess run on September 2, 1939, after 395 performances. The same production then toured for 11 weeks prior to returning to the West End, at the

Piccadilly Theatre The Piccadilly Theatre is a West End theatre located at 16 Denman Street, behind Piccadilly Circus and adjacent to the Regent Palace Hotel, in the City of Westminster, London, England. Early years Built by Bertie Crewe and Edward A. Stone ...

, on December 19, 1939 and running till June 15, 1940. The combined West End run totalled 600 performances.

Cast

John Glyn-Jones John Glyn-Jones (28 August 1908 – 21 January 1997) was a British stage, radio, television and film actor. His father, William Glyn-Jones, was a Member of Parliament and he was educated at Bishop's Stortford College and Oxford University. H ...

as John Goronwy Jones *

Christine Silver Christine Silver (17 December 1883 – 23 November 1960) was a British stage, film and television actress, and a playwright. Early life Christine Isie Silver was born in 1883 (some sources give 1884), in London, the daughter of Arthur Silver a ...

as Miss Ronberry * William John Davies as Idwal Morris * Dorothy Langley as Sarah Pugh * Albert Biddiscombe as Groom * Frederick Lloyd as Squire *

Betty Jardine Betty Jardine (17 April 1903 – 28 February 1945) was a British stage actress, stage and film actress. She began as an actress in Manchester in 1926. In 1934 she made her West End theatre, West End debut in ''Disharmony'' at the Fortune Theatre ...

as Bessie Watty *

Kathleen Harrison Kathleen Harrison (23 February 1892 – 7 December 1995) was a prolific English character actress best remembered for her role as Mrs. Huggett (opposite Jack Warner and Petula Clark) in a trio of British post-war comedies about a worki ...

as Mrs. Watty *

as Miss Moffat * Kenneth Evans as Robbart Robbatch * Wynford Morse as Glyn Thomas * Jack Glyn as Will Hughes * Glan Williams as John Owen *

as Morgan Evans * Frank Dunlop as Old Tom

Broadway production

Produced and directed by

Herman Shumlin Herman Shumlin (December 6, 1898, Atwood, Colorado – June 4, 1979, New York City) was a prolific Broadway theatrical director and theatrical producer beginning in 1927 with the play ''Celebrity'' and continuing through 1974 with a short run of '' ...

, the Broadway production of ''The Corn Is Green'' opened November 26, 1940 at the National Theatre. The setting was designed by Howard Bay; costumes were designed by Ernest Schrapps. The production transferred to the

Royale Theatre The Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre (formerly the Royale Theatre and the John Golden Theatre) is a Broadway theater at 242 West 45th Street ( George Abbott Way) in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1927, the thea ...

on September 9, 1941, and closed January 17, 1942, after a total of 477 performances.

Cast

* Rhys Williams as John Goronwy Jones *

Mildred Dunnock Mildred Dorothy Dunnock (January 25, 1901 – July 5, 1991) was an American stage and screen actress. She was twice nominated for an Academy Award: first '' Death of a Salesman'' in 1951, then '' Baby Doll'' in 1956. Early life Born in Baltimor ...

Miss Ronberry * Charles S. Pursell as Idwal Morris * Gwyneth Hughes as Sarah Pugh * George Bleasdale as Groom *

Edmund Breon Edmund Breon (born Iver Edmund de Breon MacLaverty; 12 December 1882 – 24 June 1953) was a Scottish film and stage actor. He appeared in more than 130 films between 1907 and 1952. Life and career Born in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Br ...

as Squire *

Rosalind Ivan Rosalind Ivan (27 November 1880 – 6 April 1959) was an English stage and film character actress. Ivan appeared in fourteen American films from 1944 to 1954. Rosalind Muriel Pringle was the daughter of Stamford and Annie Pringle, who marrie ...

as Mrs. Watty * Thelma Schnee as Bessie Watty *

as Miss Moffat * Thomas Lyons as Robbart Robbatch *

Richard Waring Richard Waring (born Richard Waring Stephens; 27 May 1911 – 18 January 1993) was an English-American actor. He is perhaps best remembered for his role in the film ''Mr. Skeffington'' (1944). Biography Richard Waring was born Richard Ste ...

as Morgan Evans * Kenneth Clarke as Glyn Thomas * Merritt O'Duel as John Owen * Terence Morgan as Will Hughes *

Sayre Crawley John Sayer Crawley (8 March 1867 – 7 March 1948) was an English actor who, as Sayre Crawley, spent more than 40 years in American theatre playing roles on Broadway and at the Garden Theatre, among other venues. Crawley served briefly as an ...

as Old Tom Boys, girls and parents were played by Julia Knox, Amelia Romano, Betty Conibear, Rosalind Carter, Harda Normann, Joseph McInerney, Marcel Dill, Gwilym Williams and Tommy Dix.

Broadway production (return engagement)

Barrymore and Waring reprised their roles in a return engagement—again produced and directed by Herman Shumlin—that ran May 3 – June 19, 1943 at the

Martin Beck Theatre The Al Hirschfeld Theatre, originally the Martin Beck Theatre, is a Broadway theater at 302 West 45th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1924, it was designed by G. Albert Lansburgh in a Moorish a ...

Cast

as Miss Moffat * Kenneth Clarke as Idwal Morris * Peter Harris as John Owen * Gwyneth Hughes as Sarah Pugh * Bert Kalmar as Will Hughes * Eva Leonard-Boyne as Mrs. Watty * Esther Mitchell as Miss Ronberry * Patrick O'Connor as Robbart Robbatch * Gene Ross as Glyn Thomas * Lewis L. Russell as The Squire *

as Morgan Evans * Tom E. Williams as John Goronwy Jones * J.P. Wilson as Old Tom * Perry Wilson as Bessie Watty * George Bleasdale A Groom

Reception

Revivals

* Olney Theater in Maryland presented ''The Corn Is Green'' in 1949, and it was in this production that Disney and Hawaii-Five-O star James MacArthur (adopted son of Actor Helen Hayes) first appeared on stage. It was James' sister Mary who got young James his part, pleading with their parents for James to accompany her to Maryland for the summer. See Wikipedia biography of James MacArthur. * The New York City Theatre Company presented ''The Corn Is Green'' January 11–22, 1950, at

New York City Center New York City Center (previously known as the Mecca Temple, City Center of Music and Drama,. The name "City Center for Music and Drama Inc." is the organizational parent of the New York City Ballet and, until 2011, the New York City Opera. and t ...

in a production starring

Eva Le Gallienne Eva Le Gallienne (January 11, 1899 – June 3, 1991) was a British-born American stage actress, producer, director, translator, and author. A Broadway star by age 21, Le Gallienne gave up her Broadway appearances to devote herself to founding t ...

and Richard Waring. * In 1981, the play was produced at the

Royal Exchange, Manchester The Royal Exchange is a grade II listed building in Manchester, England. It is located in the city centre on the land bounded by St Ann's Square, Exchange Street, Market Street, Cross Street and Old Bank Street. The complex includes the Royal ...

directed by James Maxwell with

Avril Elgar Avril Elgar Williams (1 April 1932 – 17 September 2021) was an English stage, radio and television actress. Early life and career Elgar was born in Halifax, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. She trained at the London Old Vic Theatre School ...

as Miss Moffatt and Alan Parnaby as Morgan Evans * After 21 previews, a Broadway revival directed by

Vivian Matalon Vivian Matalon (11 October 1929 – 15 August 2018) was a British theatre director. Born in Manchester, Matalon began his career as an actor in a series of forgettable British films, but his greatest success has been as a director of West End, ...

and produced by

Elizabeth Taylor Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was a British-American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 1950s. ...

and

Zev Buffman Zev Buffman (born Ze'ev Bufman) (October 11, 1930 – April 1, 2020) was a Broadway producer who served as president and CEO of Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, Florida. He produced more than 40 Broadway shows. He partnered with Elizabeth Taylo ...

opened on August 22, 1983, at the

Lunt-Fontanne Theatre The Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, originally the Globe Theatre, is a Broadway theater at 205 West 46th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1910, the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre was designed by Carrère and Hasti ...

Cicely Tyson Cicely Louise Tyson (December 19, 1924January 28, 2021) was an American actress. In a career which spanned more than seven decades in film, television and theatre, she became known for her portrayal of strong African-American women. Tyson recei ...

portrayed Miss Moffat, with

Peter Gallagher Peter Killian Gallagher (born August 19, 1955) is an American actor. Since 1980, he has played roles in numerous Hollywood films. He is best known for starring as Sandy Cohen in the television drama series '' The O.C.'' from 2003 to 2007, recu ...

as Morgan Evans,

Marge Redmond Marjorie Redmond (December 14, 1924 – February 10, 2020), known as Marge Redmond, was an American actress and singer. Early years Marjorie Redmond was born in Cleveland, Ohio in December 1924 and was raised in Lakewood by J.V. Redmond, a fir ...

as Mrs. Watty, and Mia Dillon as Bessie Watty. The show closed on September 18, 1983, after 32 performances. * In 1985, the play enjoyed a successful revival at the

Old Vic Old or OLD may refer to: Places *Old, Baranya, Hungary *Old, Northamptonshire, England * Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD) *OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, Ma ...

Theatre in London, starring

Deborah Kerr Deborah Jane Trimmer CBE (30 September 192116 October 2007), known professionally as Deborah Kerr (), was a British actress. She was nominated six times for the Academy Award for Best Actress. During her international film career, Kerr won a ...

. * In 2009, Boston's

Huntington Theatre Company The Huntington Theatre Company is a professional theatre located in Boston, Massachusetts and the recipient of the 2013 Regional Theatre Tony Award, under the direction of Managing Director Michael Maso. It is notable for its longstanding artist ...

presented a revival of ''The Corn Is Green'' starring Kate Burton and her son Morgan Ritchie. *In 2022, the National Theatre in London staged a new production starring

Nicola Walker Nicola Jane Walker (born 15 May 1970) is an English actress, known for her starring roles in various British television programmes from the 1990s onwards, including that of Ruth Evershed in the spy drama '' Spooks'' (2003–2006 and 2009–201 ...

as Miss Moffat and

Gareth David-Lloyd Gareth David Lloyd (born 28 March 1981), known professionally as Gareth David-Lloyd, is a Welsh actor and writer best known for his role as Ianto Jones in the British science fiction series ''Torchwood.'' Early life He was born in Bettws, Newp ...

, directed by

Dominic Cooke Dominic Cooke (born 1966) is an English director and writer. Early life Born in Wimbledon, south London, Cooke was brought up seeing a lot of theatre as a teenager from free theatre tickets provided by the Inner London Education Authority. ...

Adaptations

In 1945, a

film adaptation A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dia ...

was made with

Bette Davis Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (; April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress with a career spanning more than 50 years and 100 acting credits. She was noted for playing unsympathetic, sardonic characters, and was famous for her p ...

(herself of Welsh descent) as Moffat. The BBC adapted the play for television in 1968 as a ''

Play of the Month ''Play of the Month'' is a BBC television anthology series, which ran from 1965 to 1983 featuring productions of classic and contemporary stage plays (or adaptations) which were usually broadcast on BBC1. Each production featured a different wo ...

''. In 1974, Davis returned to the role in a musical stage adaptation that proved to be a disaster. The setting was changed to the American South, with the young man transformed into an African-American field worker (portrayed by

Dorian Harewood Dorian Harewood (born August 6, 1950) is an American actor, best known for playing Jesse Owens in '' The Jesse Owens Story'' (1984), Paul Strobber on '' Strike Force'' (1981–1982), and Rev. Morgan Hamilton in '' 7th Heaven'' (1996–2003). E ...

). When the pre-Broadway run opened in Philadelphia, critics were unimpressed. Plans for revisions were cut short when Davis fell ill, and the show closed abruptly after eight performances. The musical later was staged for a short run in Indianapolis with Ginger Rogers as Miss Moffat. A 1979 made-for-television movie, directed by

George Cukor George Dewey Cukor (; July 7, 1899 – January 24, 1983) was an American film director and film producer. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO when David O. Selznick, the studio's Head ...

and starring

Katharine Hepburn Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress in film, stage, and television. Her career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned over 60 years. She was known for her headstrong independence, spirited perso ...

, was filmed on location in Wales.

References

External links

* *
The Corn Is Green
' at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

(1941

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

edition)
1947 ''Theatre Guild on the Air'' radio play adaptation
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Corn is Green, The 1938 plays Broadway plays Plays by Emlyn Williams British plays adapted into films West End plays