Captain Carvallo
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Captain Carvallo is a traditional comedy play in three acts by Denis Cannan, telling the story of a philandering young army officer, Captain Carvallo.
The comedy was an immediate success when it opened at the St. James Theatre on 9 August 1950, as the second production under Sir Laurence Olivier's management.
A television production of the play was broadcast on the BBC the following year, with Patrick Macnee in the lead. Cannan adapted the play himself for a Rediffusion production later that decade. In 1988 the play was revived at the Greenwich Theatre. A version aired on Australian television in 1958.[1]
Smila Darde, wife of Caspar Darde, a farmer and lay preacher who is also a partisan, is asked for billet Captain Carvallo, an enemy officer. Her husband and his fellow partisan, Professor Winke, a biologist, are commanded to kill Carvallo but they discover they like him too much.
Original production
The play was first tried out in March 1950 at the Bristol Old Vic, where Cannan was acting at the time. A few months later, Laurence Olivier boldly restaged the play – billed as a "traditional comedy" – at the St James's theatre in London, with James Donald in the lead role, opposite Diana Wynyard.[2] It was a great success, although Cannan preferred the Bristol production.[citation needed] "His play shimmers with ideas wittily juxtaposed, and it is funnier than the Crazy Gang", wrote the critic Harold Hobson.[citation needed]
Original cast (St. James Theatre, 1950)
| Character | Actor |
|---|---|
| Captain Carvallo | James Donald |
| Smilja Darde | Diana Wynyard |
| Professor Winke | Peter Finch |
| Caspar Darde | Richard Goolden |
| Private Gross | Thomas Heathcote |
| Anni | Jill Bennett |
| The Baron | Anthony Pelly |