''Dear Liar'', full title ''Dear Liar: A Comedy of Letters'' is a play by American actor, director, and playwright Jerome Kilty. It was first staged in 1957 and published in 1960. A television adaptation was made in 1964, directed by David Gardner for National Educational Television. Two film adaptations were later created, one in English by director Gordon Rigsby in 1981 and another in French as ''Cher menteur'' (meaning Dear liar) in 1982 by French director Alexandre Tarta.

The play

The play is based on the correspondence between famed playwright

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 188 ...

and actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell. In the play written by Kilty, two actors duel with each other as they act on the letters exchanged between Shaw and Mrs. Campbell. In 1960, Dodd, Mead & Company published the play under the title ''Dear Liar: A Comedy of Letters adapted by Jerome Kilty from the Correspondence of Bernard Shaw and Mrs. Patrick Campbell''. The play was staged first in Chicago in 1957. A production by

Guthrie McClintic Guthrie McClintic (August 6, 1893 – October 29, 1961) was an American theatre director, film director, and producer based in New York. Life and career McClintic was born in Seattle, attended Washington University in St. Louis and New York's A ...

and

Sol Hurok Sol Hurok (also Solomon Israilevich Hurok; born Solomon Izrailevich Gurkov, Russian language, Russian Соломон Израилевич Гурков; April 9, 1888March 5, 1974) was a 20th-century American impresario. Early life Hurok was born ...

, starring

Katharine Cornell Katharine Cornell (February 16, 1893 – June 9, 1974) was an American stage actress, writer, theater owner and producer. She was born in Berlin to American parents and raised in Buffalo, New York. Dubbed "The First Lady of the Theatre" by cri ...

and

Brian Aherne William Brian de Lacy Aherne (2 May 190210 February 1986) was an English actor of stage, screen, radio and television, who enjoyed a long and varied career in Britain and the United States. His first Broadway appearance in '' The Barretts of ...

and directed by Jerome Kilty, had its world premiere on March 3, 1959 at the Sombrero Playhouse in

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona. With over 1.6 million residents at the 2020 census, it is the ...

. It then went on a national tour, arriving in New York on March 17, 1960. The play had a very successful run in New York. It was later staged in London for the first time in 1963. After London showings, in 1964 Kilty and his wife, actress Cavada Humphry, made a world tour with the play.

Television adaptation

In 1964, the U.S.-based

National Educational Television National Educational Television (NET) was an American non-commercial educational, educational terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by the Ford Foundation and later co-owned by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It op ...

(NET) staged ''Dear Liar'' as a two-character play on its series ''NET Playhouse''. The television staging was directed by David Gardner based on Jerome Kilty's work and starred

Zoe Caldwell Zoe Ada Caldwell (14 September 1933 – 16 February 2020) was an Australian actress. She was a four-time Tony Award winner, winning Best Featured Actress in a Play for '' Slapstick Tragedy'' (1966), and Best Actress in a Play for '' The Prim ...

and Barry Morse.

Film adaptations

''Dear Liar''

The play was brought to the screen in 1981 by the director Gordon Rigsby with the lead roles by

Jane Alexander Jane Alexander (née Quigley; born October 28, 1939) is an American-Canadian actress and author. She is the recipient of two Primetime Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, and nominations for four Academy Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards. From 1993 ...

as Mrs. Patrick Campbell and Edward Herrmann as George Bernard Shaw.

''Cher menteur''

A 1960 adaptation in French was written by

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau ( , ; ; 5 July 1889 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, film director, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost avant-garde artists of the 20th-c ...

under the title '' Cher menteur'' (Dear Liar). The 1982 film directed by Alexandre Tarta had in lead roles

Edwige Feuillère Edwige Feuillère (born Edwige Louise Caroline Cunatti; 29 October 1907 – 13 November 1998) was a French stage and film actress. Biography She was born Edwige Louise Caroline Cunatti to an Italian architect father and an Alsace-born moth ...

as Mrs. Patrick Campbell and Jean Marais as George Bernard Shaw.

References

External links

* * (1964) * (1981) *{{IMDb title, qid=Q123538264, title=Cher menteur 1957 plays American plays adapted into films 1981 films 1982 films 1980s English-language films fr:Cher menteur