A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE

London Wall

Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy  /  5w, 4m

London Wall is a wryly comic look at the life of women office workers in the 1930s.

  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    5w, 4m
  • Duration
    Duration
    120 minutes (2 hours)
  • SubGenre
    Subgenre
    Period, Docudrama/Historic, Romantic Comedy
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult, Teen (Age 14 - 18)

Details

Summary

In a solicitor's office in the City, Brewer, the office manager, sees pretty new 19-year-old typist Pat as fair game. As some of the more experienced secretaries try to warn her, and others leave her to her fate, her steady boyfriend - an idealistic young writer- desperately tries to win her back.

Meanwhile cynical Miss Janus' romantic life seems to be over as she is jilted by her lover at the desperate age of 35....

Keywords

PAT MILLIGAN
MISS BUFTON
MISS HOOPER
MISS WILLESDEN
MISS JANUS
HEC HAMMOND
MR. BREWER
BIRKINSHAW
MR. WALKER

  • Time Period 1930s
  • Features Period Costumes
  • Duration 120 minutes (2 hours)
  • Cautions
    • Mild Adult Themes

Media

"A provocative, socially conscious bit of fun that never made it to Broadway. Watching Davis McCallum's brisk, pitch-perfect production feels like stumbling across a lost film classic by Howard Hawks: How did this fresh and fizzy thing fall into obscurity?" - The New York Times

"
The Mint [theatre] has just mounted the U.S. premiere of his London Wall, a 1931 comedy set in a London law office. This witty, glisteningly crafted tale of a quartet of working women and the benighted men for whom they work has a distinctly contemporary flavor, enough that you'll come away wondering whether Van Druten might deserve credit for inventing the workplace comedy decades before it found favor on TV.” - Wall Street Journal

"
“Writing this 1931 play, set in a law office, the playwright John Van Druten (Bell, Book and Candle) was prescient in his examination of the workplace as an evolving social construct, which provides a kind of family but is also fraught with the dangers of economic and sexual exploitation.” - The New Yorker

"[London Wall] has pertinent things to say about the exploitation of women, and is as rivetingly entertaining as you'd expect from the man who went on to write I Am a Camera." - The Guardian

"A heartfelt, romantic drama" - Time Out London
"It might be very sentimental and the values all come from another age but London Wall will undoubtedly have audiences rolling with laughter and shedding the odd tear too." - British Theatre Guide

Music

  • Musical Style N/A (Not a musical)
  • Vocal DemandsN/A (Not a musical)
  • Chorus Size N/A (Not a musical)

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: $110 per performance

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Authors

John Van Druten

John William Van Druten (June 1, 1901 – December 19, 1957) was an English playwright and theatre director. He began his career in London, and later moved to America, becoming a U.S. citizen. He was known for his plays of witty and urbane observations of contemporary life and ...
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