The Circle - W. Somerset Maugham - BBC Saturday Night Theatre

The Circle: a Comedy in Three Acts is a play by W. Somerset Maugham. It was first produced at the Haymarket Theatre, London on 3 March 1921, and has been revived several times in the West End and on Broadway.
The play, which caused some outrage among a small minority of playgoers at the time of the premiere, depicts a young married woman contemplating leaving her husband for another man, and looking to an elderly peer and his partner, who eloped thirty years earlier, for advice.
William Somerset Maugham was an English playwright, novelist, and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest-paid author during the 1930s
Both Maugham's parents died before he was 10, and the orphaned boy was raised by a paternal uncle who was emotionally cold. He did not want to become a lawyer like other men in his family, so he trained and qualified as a physician. His first novel Liza of Lambeth (1897) sold out so rapidly that Maugham gave up medicine to write full-time.
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[@philiphema2678]

I am so pleased to be able to access Somerset Maugham's writings. As a child growing up in NZ I began this journey of delight around 14 yrs old. Now, at 76 yrs old and living in Hawai'i, nothing has changed. The pleasure remains. I was also delighted to learn of Syrie Maugham's creation of the first white interior as an established interior designer, a style still fashionable for many today in the 21st c. Many thanks.

[@vivienwilliams1538]

I loved that comment ' '' why, a woman's life is uncomfortable from the moment she gets up in the morning until the moment she goes to bed at night' '' Excellent Maugham.

[@Mrrossj01]

After Teddy outlines his definition of love, any normal woman would have run screaming from the room. Black eyes. Fights. Jealousy. Poverty.

[@lauralaladarling3775]

Marvellously put, I couldn't agree more! Xxxx

[@Angela-cc1hd]

Absolutely correct!!

[@udayamavin]

Cave man romance!!! Doing it With clubs 😂😂😂😂😂

[@harriettemacy7399]

I absolutely adore Somerset Maugham!

[@mariamason1919]

@Harriette Macy - just wanted to say hello to a fellow Somerset Maugham fan! He did seem such a brilliant man and also a kind man. I love the honesty in all his many works.

[@angelajones6719]

Excellent play, the grass is never greener! I could not be in the company of Lord Porteous for 5 minutes.

[@leeknights5540]

It has to be said, although awfully clichéd, they don't make 'em like this any more. Fabulous actors, fabulous script, fabulous inspiration from WS Maugham, rhank you!

[@feralbluee]

i read Maugham when i was in college in the ‘60’s. i loved his writings. and now am discovering him again. he is totally incredible! excellent production of this play. thank you so much. 🎭 🌷🌱

[@cathygould]

This is just delicious❣️ I was so afraid the wrong people would win, and such a clever wrap-up❣️❣️❣️

[@incrediblesimilarity5858]

While everyone has their two cents worth as to what they got out of this story, I have a decidedly different point of view about this play. I am aware of the name Somerset Maugham and his wonderful stories written in the twenties. This BBC produced a play was very well developed, including all the actresses and actors. At the very heart of this play, however, is the phenomenal writing of mister Maugham . Think how he introduces his characters, and how he fleshes out their character so thoroughly. Once we get to know them, we think we can predict how they will behave and what they will say. Then towards the end of the play, people are not what they seem to be. People seem to forgive each other and become more palatable. They turn from hollow shells to complete characters. The whole strength of this play is based on the fantastic writing. 👍👍

[@leciabella9461]

🤔

[@darkdaughter5472]

Thank you loved the writing

[@JudeNance]

I love his writings ✍️ ❤️

[@anaderol5408]

Thoroughly enjoyed this play - and may we all survive the interference of emotionally under-0developed daughters-in-law wishing to reconcile happily divorced parents 🤣🤣

[@JanetteHeffernan]

In the 1970s I went to the first night of revival The Circle at the Savoy. I was there as a guest of character actor William Kendal who was playing Lord Porteous. That night William stole the show with his entrance, Maugham wrote the most marvellous build up to this dashing young lover who entranced a young wife to run away with him to San Michele. Bill over 60, over weight and paunchy strode on stage left with a cigar in his hand in full evening dress which for the aristocracy in those days included knee breeches to a gasp of astonishment at the sight and a huge round of applause. Such clever writing. Bill was our next door neighbour, we lived in Stanmore and I think I was supposed to have driven up in my mini to take him home after the first night but I had gone up by tube. This was a pity because I missed out on a supper at the Savoy with the notorious Lord Bristol who was a friend of BIll's! I never had another opportunity. I too know the spell of San Michele. This magic Villa in Capri has captivated me all my life that during Covid I made a short KZbin video called The Story of San Michele - Janette Miller to encourage others to visit. This radio play brought it all back. The style of BBC rep is now a bit dated but delicious and Maugham's writing is still a pleasure.

[@janep7211]

Every married man and woman should learn from this.

[@jendoyle119]

Thank you for sharing this fantastic play

[@TheSashapooch]

At the end we learn that Arnold was played by Alan Wheatley. I was sure I recognised the voice and I googled it, yes Alan Wheatley played the Sheriff of Nottingham in the old British TV show 'Robin Hood' with co-star Richard Greene ... Robin Hood, Robin Hood riding through the glen ... magic!

[@jwsuicides8095]

Thanks for the info!

[@mikewellwood1412]

And of course, Carleton Hobbs played Sherlock Holmes on the radio for many years. Stephn Murray co-starred at one time in "The Navy Lark", also on radio.

[@SophieBird07]

Of course! 🎵with his band of men🎵.....lol.

[@richardw3470]

Interesting, I was just thinking of him last night. He played a villain in one of my favorite movies--It's Not Cricket. So, it didn't surprise me a couple of years later when he showed up as the nasty sheriff.

[@feralbluee]

i loved that show and, yes, i remember the theme, too :) looking back, as i was 11 at the time, Richard Greene, was really pretty (i used to say that in the ‘60’s). LOL

[@dianebonneau2350]

classic and intense mood carries us into that timeframe

[@teagunn]

Absolutely loved this! Thank you 😊

[@janetmackinnon3411]

Written by a great writer who nonethess had a particular slant on social life. And who had little sympathy with women. But a great writer, all the same.

[@mulderandscully]

When I first heard Arnold talk he sounded about 55! He certainly sounds a lot older than 35. It's a bit distracting!

[@Angela-cc1hd]

Love makes Fools of us all one way or another, and it is very short lived!!! Elizabeth is living in cloud cuckoo land!

[@donwardell4605]

The BBC's finest actors and one of the worlds finest drama writers combine. A torrent of words issues forth in this class structured plot. It's impossible to follow all the nuances in this well produced radio drama.

[@feralbluee]

Maugham was such a good writer, always understood people’s emotions and didn’t treat them nastily, always reasons for things. very modern ideas, too, about women. i always liked him since H.S. and read him on my own. this play was so well acted, directed, and produced. you can always tell professional actors. :) 🌷🎭

[@adiconstantin4598]

Parents used to teach their children to seek for the everlasting love, then writers - like Somerset Maugham (was he first?) - admit love lasts for a while (2 or 3 years), then boredom arrive, so young people think that this will never happen to them, so they turn to psychologists, who claim that love is later replaced by "attachment", which has to be defended by everyday "battles", also women's notion of love is completely different than men's anyway, and first you have to love yourself to become lovable for the others!... So, finally, what is the conclusion? In this "lottery" are some winning numbers at all?...

[@Dawghome]

In the pic I thought two people on the right had big afro's, I can't unview it enough to see the picture for what it is or means to be.

[@incrediblesimilarity5858]

The woman on the right is standing in front of a picture frame which is on the wall behind her. I'm very old, with poor eyesight I can still make out the picture. The clothing is common from the 1920s. Afros, ha ha ha. 😂😂

[@mrbazzabee4013]

Ha' ...I even thought that myself 4 a micro-second.

[@adiconstantin4598]

I thought there were palace-guard-fur-hats 😋, then I thought there only were round mirrors

[@rubytuesday5412]

~ I didn't see that originally but after reading your comment, that's all I see now!

[@corinnehaystead156]

really enjoyed this play

[@joansavage1857]

Perfect! Thank you....

[@joansavage1857]

Just perfect. Thank you...

[@chester8143]

So enjoyed.

[@kayi9236]

Thank you.

[@kazneasham9110]

Brilliant!

[@justme2me]

people must have been very kind those days...today Elizabeth would be treated for what she is a selfish person...edward too...

[@pegallen6983]

That was quite good Thank you

[@roxanavasilakis9435]

Fabulous , thank you 🍀🍀

[@clivefuller-hale5073]

Here is some original cast info... Saturday-Night Theatre, The Circle BBC Radio 4 FM, 25 April 1970 20.30 Synopsis by W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM with Stephen Murray Carleton Hobbs Grizelda Hervey This, perhaps the most distinguished of Somerset Maugham's plays, was originally produced at the Haymarket Theatre, London, in 1921 and remains a classic example of English comedy at its best. Produced by VAL GIELGUD (Repeated: Monday, 3.0 pm) (Val Gielgud 's choice: page 14. Another Maugham story, 1 Jane ': Thurs, BBC2) Contributors Produced By: Val Gielgud Arnold Champion-Cheney: Alan Wheatley George: Peter Tuddenham Anna Shenstone: Dorit Welles Elizabeth: Patricia Gallimore Edward Luton: Brian Hewlett Clive Champion-Cheney: Carleton Hobbs Lady Kitty: Grizelda Hervey Lord Porteous: Stephen Murray

[@citizen1163]

Thanks!

[@MoonChild-yg3nw]

How true it is... After the first early months or years, it get dull try as you might. Everlasting romance is only in movies, and how disappointed one get the time you wake up and realize that.

[@rosalindarcher6060]

Clever and wise. I enjoyed it immensley

[@sierraseven3680]

I firmly believe that people who insist on "helping" someone who is playing patience (AKA solitaire) should be horse-whipped. Just my opinion.

[@Dawghome]

Yes, or tied to the back of a trailor and dragged through the streets!

[@mrbazzabee4013]

@@Dawghome Hee-Hee...! Love it.

[@granthurlburt4062]

"Would you like my make-up? I find it such a (calming influence)"

[@brencarr3629]

Thanks

[@tedar3986]

❤️ WSM! Ty CR

[@jordsupp]

Not bad at all. Thankyou.

[@francescaemc2]

grazie

[@murkydepths181]

Ghastly propaganda for parents indulging their wishes before the well-being of their child 🤨

[@mysteriesoflife64]

I might be old fashioned, but marriages are sacred and you should stick to it as long as you can get along and there are no major problems Passionate love fades and leaving one man for another should not be a reason for divorce

[@stewartmcardle8149]

Fancy that .....Neil Carter (Brian Hewlett) is in love with (dare I say it, the "plump") Pat Archer (Patricia Gallimore) and vice versa....what will Tony and Susan say? Lovely vignette featuring some of radio's regular actors and actresses such as Carleton Hobbs, Grizelda Hervey and Stephen Murray...

[@Lakeslover1]

📻👍🏽😀

[@leciabella9461]

Yes ... love isn’t everything is it ☺️

[@nicolegallard3730]

⁰

[@timw4383]

This is the most asinine idea of what love entails than anything I've ever heard. It is foolishness to sacrifice one's happiness for love. Fools.

[@sockmonkey22]

Maugham’s genius is to frustrate the reader who is paying attention. He pulls the rug out from under our imagined sturdy footing. Yes, in today’s world Elizabeth would not settle for a miserable life with either flawed suitor, the exciting bully or the husband she didn’t love. She’d get an education and a job and marry a decent man who loved her, one she can love back.

[@Silly.Old.Sisyphus]

Maugham's satire on the hypocritical cosmetic mores of the English middle class offers a cast of utterly superficial and vacuous characters who each and every right to the end demonstrate only a selfishness and indifference to others worthy of a Tory voter.

[@janieromer2907]

English upper class.

[@Silly.Old.Sisyphus]

@@janieromer2907 sorry to have to correct you, old bean, but your comment indicates you are even further down the pecking order than you thought you were, because Maugham's characters are drawn from the upper middle class of his day (later exemplified by the narcissistic parasites Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair) who spend most of their time wishing they were upper class, and trying to rub shoulders with them.. Listen again to the first couple of minutes: the scene is the elegant house of an MP. He is a member of the House of Commons. That is way above the hoi-polloi like you and me, but also way below beneath the airy lofty lazy idle rich existences of the landed gentry upper class, whose fathers owned thousands of acres instead of merely dozens, and who hunt, fish and shoot instead of having to make money in the City or the plantations of the Federated States of Malaya, and who (used to) sit in the upper chamber, the Lords, if they could be bothered, which was rarely.

[@oliviapeart7797]

The casual violence to women is sickening

[@adiconstantin4598]

... only some women unbelievably seem to appreciate it!?!....

[@blackbean4509]

This is sick Narssictist

[@jeffreypick57]

A boring play about nothing and awful rich people with nothing to do. The author thought it would be amusing - father loses wife to best friend. 20 years later son loses wife to best friend. That's it. the rest is tedious very dated filler.

[@alanfox3177]

FOOL

[@58christiansful]

Absolute fool. Haha