NET Playhouse; Everyman

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This record is featured in “National Educational Television.”
Series
NET Playhouse
Episode Number
139
Episode Number
80
Episode
Everyman
Producing Organization
British Broadcasting Corporation
Contributing Organization
Library of Congress (Washington, District of Columbia)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip/512-1c1td9nw5f
NOLA Code
NPEV
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Description
Episode Description
During the dark ages following the death of classical civilization, there was no drama, as such, in Europe. But by the 14th and early 15th centuries, mainly as a kind of elaboration or by-product of church ritual, there began a revival of play performance. The most popular form of medieval play was the mystery or miracle play, based exclusively on biblical themes. Toward the end of the 15th century, however, a new dramatic form began to take hold of the popular imagination, the morality play, an allegorical piece in which personified virtues and vices grappled for the soul of man. The most famous of these medieval morality plays, Everyman, has no known author, although it is believed to have been the Elckerlijk, written by a Dutch monk, Peter Dorlandus, sometime in the 15th century and to have been translated almost immediately into English. The play was originally performed, sometimes as part of the Lent observances, on a farm wagon parked outside the village church. The actors all wore the normal dress of the period and locality , and the characters, all symbolic, were related to familiar, everyday figures. In keeping with tradition, this television production is in modern dress and the characters have equally modern guises (Five-Wits is a card shark; Discretion is a lawyer; and Death variously a beggar, barman and manservant). The language, however, is still that of the 15th century. In a series of simple scenes, the play tells the story of mans journey through life with Death attending him at every step, and how he triumphs over evil, weakness, and vanity to attain salvation when Death finally claims him. When God calls Death and orders him to take Everyman, Everyman seeks someone to accompany him to the grave. He turns to Fellowship, Kindred, Cousin, and Goods but is rejected by each. At first it appears that Knowledge, Confession, Discretion, Strength, Beauty or Five-Wits may agree to go with him, but all forsake him on the last journey. Only Good-Deeds is prepared to enter the grave with Everyman and help him to salvation. NET Playhouse -- Everyman is a National Educational Television presentation, produced for the British Broadcasting Corporation by Peter Luke, directed by Michael Hayes. The filler material for NET Playhouse #139 (Everyman) is a black and white documentary, running a little over 22 minutes, entitled Young Filmmakers, by David Hoffman. Hoffman is himself a young filmmaker and is co-director of the feature film King, Murray, which just completed a run at The Little Carnegie theatre in mid-Manhattan. The film revolves around a conference, given by Fordham University in February 1968, on the new generation of filmmakers, ranging in age from a five-year-old girl to highly articulate teenagers. (One of the teenagers is interviewed on camera and excerpts shown from his modernized version of Macbeth.) The film also contains an experiment which grew out of the conference involving two groups of teenagers, one group from a Philadelphia private school and one group from New Yorks Lower East Side. Each group was given the same equipment, the same amount of film, the same time and the same location (the interior of a film production company) and asked to make a one-minute film. The results of this experiment are included together with a bull session between the two groups. What emerged from the private school group was a rather formal, abstract statement starting form the idea of the function of a film production company, shots of editing, equipment, etc. The group from the Lower East Side made a plotted melodrama, a kind of gangster film, responding, they said, to the big office, the kind of office none of them thought they would ever have. The premise of the film is to show that this generation of kids is being given a new tool -- the movies -- with which to perceive their world, and to illustrate how they are making free and articulate statements with that tool. This aired as NET Playhouse episode 80 on April 12, 1968 and as NET Playhouse episode 139 on May 29, 1969. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)
Episode Description
1 hour piece, produced by Peter Luke for BBC and initially distributed by NET in 1969. It was originally shot on videotape in black and white.
Broadcast Date
1969-05-29
Broadcast Date
1968-04-12
Asset type
Episode
Genres
Drama
Media type
Moving Image
Credits
Actor: Chater, Geoffrey
Actor: Lloyd, Sue
Actor: Chapman, Robin
Actor: Watson, Jack
Actor: Ross, Annie
Actor: de Souza, Edward
Actor: Bell, Ann
Actor: Dobie, Alan
Actor: Lynch, Sean
Actor: May, Jack
Actor: Pentelow, Arthur
Actor: Michael, Ralph
Actor: English, Patricia
Actor: Birch, Derek
Actor: Gifford, Wendy
Composer: Hayes, Tubby
Designer: Diss, Eileen
Director: Hayes, Michael, 1929-2014
Photo Montage Creator: Lodge, Bernard
Producer: Chessid, Kay
Producer: Luke, Peter
Producing Organization: British Broadcasting Corporation
AAPB Contributor Holdings
Library of Congress
Identifier: 1654755-1 (MAVIS Item ID)
Format: 1 inch videotape: SMPTE Type C
Generation: Master
Duration: 1:28:00
Library of Congress
Identifier: 1654755-2 (MAVIS Item ID)
Format: 2 inch videotape
Generation: Master
Duration: 1:28:00
Library of Congress
Identifier: 1654755-3 (MAVIS Item ID)
Format: U-matic
Generation: Master
Duration: 1:28:00
Library of Congress
Identifier: 1654755-5 (MAVIS Item ID)
Generation: Copy: Access
Color: Color
Library of Congress
Identifier: 1654755-6 (MAVIS Item ID)
Generation: Copy: Access
Color: Color
Library of Congress
Identifier: 1654755-4 (MAVIS Item ID)
Generation: Master
Color: Color
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Citations
Chicago: “NET Playhouse; Everyman,” 1969-05-29, Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed July 3, 2025, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-512-1c1td9nw5f.
MLA: “NET Playhouse; Everyman.” 1969-05-29. Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. July 3, 2025. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-512-1c1td9nw5f>.
APA: NET Playhouse; Everyman. Boston, MA: Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-512-1c1td9nw5f