''Children of a Lesser God'' is a

play Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * P ...

Mark Medoff Mark Medoff (March 18, 1940 – April 23, 2019) was an American playwright, screenwriter, film and theatre director, actor, and professor. His play '' Children of a Lesser God'' received both the Tony Award and the Olivier Award. He was nomina ...

, focusing on the conflicted professional and romantic relationship between Sarah Norman, a

deaf Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an audiological condition. In this context it is written ...

student, and her former teacher, James Leeds. It premiered at the

Mark Taper Forum The Mark Taper Forum is a 739-seat thrust stage at the Los Angeles Music Center designed by Welton Becket and Associates on the Bunker Hill section of downtown Los Angeles. Named for real estate developer Mark Taper, the Forum, the neighborin ...

in 1979, was produced on Broadway in 1980 and in the West End in 1981. It won the 1980

Tony Award for Best Play The Tony Award for Best Play (formally, an Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre) is an annual award given to the best new (non-musical) play on Broadway, as determined by Tony Award voters. There was no award in the Tonys' first year ...

Background

The play was specially written for the deaf actress Phyllis Frelich, based to some extent on her relationship with her husband Robert Steinberg. It was originally developed from workshops and showcased at

New Mexico State University New Mexico State University (NMSU or NM State) is a public, land-grant, research university in Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States. Founded in 1888, it is the state's oldest public institution of higher education, and was the original land-g ...

, with Frelich and Steinberg in the lead roles. It was seen by Gordon Davidson, Director of the Mark Taper Forum in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, who insisted that the male role needed to be played by a more experienced professional actor. The title comes from

Alfred, Lord Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (; 6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of ...

's ''

Idylls of the King ''Idylls of the King'', published between 1859 and 1885, is a cycle of twelve narrative poems by the English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892; Poet Laureate from 1850) which retells the legend of King Arthur, his knights, his love f ...

'': "For why is all around us here / As if some lesser god had made the world".

Historical casting

Productions

Following a highly successful run at the

, the Broadway production, directed by Gordon Davidson, opened on March 30, 1980, at the

Longacre Theatre The Longacre Theatre is a Broadway theater at 220 West 48th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. Opened in 1913, it was designed by Henry B. Herts and is named for Longacre Square, the former ...

, where it ran for 887 performances. The cast included Phyllis Frelich as Sarah and John Rubinstein as James.

David Ackroyd David Ackroyd (born May 30, 1940) is an American actor, who first came to prominence in soap operas such as ''The Secret Storm'' and ''Another World (TV series), Another World''. Early life On May 30, 1940, Ackroyd was born in East Orange, N ...

later replaced Rubinstein. Deaf actress Elizabeth Quinn later replaced Frelich, and

Linda Bove Linda Bove is a Deaf American actress, her most notable role being a fictionalized version of herself in the PBS children's series ''Sesame Street'' from 1971 to 2002. Bove was the first Deaf actress to be a member of the program's recurring c ...

, another deaf actress, known to television audiences for her more-than-30-year-long run on ''

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational television, educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation, and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Worksh ...

'', had a successful turn in the role as well. In 1981, the West End production ran originally at the

Mermaid Theatre The Mermaid Theatre was a theatre encompassing the site of Puddle Dock and Curriers' Alley at Blackfriars in the City of London, and the first built in the City since the time of Shakespeare. It was, importantly, also one of the first new th ...

, then at the

Albery Theatre Albery is a name. It may refer to: Given name * Albery Allson Whitman (1851−1901), African American poet, minister and orator Surname * A. S. Albery, British politician * Bronson Albery (1881−1971), English theatre director and impresario * Do ...

, garnering three

Olivier Awards The Laurence Olivier Awards, or simply The Olivier Awards, are presented annually by the Society of London Theatre to recognize excellence in West End theatre, professional theatre in London. The awards were originally known as the Society of We ...

. The production starred

Trevor Eve Trevor John Eve (born 1 July 1951) is an English actor. In 1979, he gained fame as the eponymous lead in the detective series '' Shoestring'' (1979-1980) and is also known for his role as Detective Superintendent Peter Boyd in the long-running B ...

and Elizabeth Quinn. Deaf actors from the UK were understudies including Jean St Clair, Sarah Scott and Terry Ruane. A Broadway revival opened on April 11, 2018, at

Studio 54 Studio 54 is a Broadway theatre, Broadway theater and former nightclub at 254 West 54th Street (Manhattan), 54th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, U.S. Opened as the Gallo Opera House in 1927, it served ...

, directed by Kenny Leon and starring

Joshua Jackson Joshua Carter Jackson (born June 11, 1978) is an American and Canadian actor. He is known for his portrayals of Pacey Witter on The WB's teen drama ''Dawson's Creek'' (1998–2003), Peter Bishop in the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox science fic ...

, Lauren Ridloff, John McGinty and Anthony Edwards.

Reception

Reviewing a 1982 Boston production of the play, critic Carolyn Clay wrote, "Don't believe what you hear about ''Children of a Lesser God''. This much touted, Tony Award-winning exercise in affirmative-action theater does not constitute a great play. It is a nice, rather prosaically written love story that happens to focus on a bright and defiant ‘pure deaf’ woman who marries her speech teacher yet refuses to speak. The production is unusual, however, in that it uses a deaf actress in the role of the deaf woman and two hearing-impaired performers as her hearing-impaired cohorts. This is — depending on how you choose to regard it — either the play's gimmick or its very soul. Certainly the fact that half the drama is spoken in American Sign Language — fleet and eloquent and often delightfully snide — is the only extraordinary thing about it."

Film adaptation

In 1986, Medoff adapted the play for film directed by

Randa Haines Randa Jo Haines (born February 20, 1945, in Los Angeles) is an American film and television director and producer. Haines started her career as a script supervisor on several low-budget features in the 1970s, including '' Let's Scare Jessica to ...

, starring

Marlee Matlin Marlee Matlin (born August 24, 1965) is an American actress, activist, and author. Deafness, Deaf since she was 18 months old, Matlin is known for her portrayals of deaf women, and for her activism on behalf of deaf individuals in Cinema of the ...

and William Hurt.

Awards and nominations

;Awards * 1980

Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play The Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play is an honor presented at the Tony Awards, a ceremony established in 1947 as the Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre, to actors for quality leading roles in a Broadway ...

- John Rubinstein * 1980

* 1980 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Actor- John Rubinstein * 1980 Drama Desk Award Outstanding New Play * 1981 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play

Original Broadway production

Original West End production

2018 Broadway revival

References

* *

External links

* {{Navboxes , title = Awards for ''Children of a Lesser God'' , list = {{DramaDesk Play 1975–2000 {{OlivierAward Play 1976–2000 {{TonyAwardBestPlay 1976-2000 1980 plays Broadway plays Plays by Mark Medoff Plays and musicals about disability Deaf culture Drama Desk Award–winning plays Laurence Olivier Award–winning plays Tony Award–winning plays American plays adapted into films