Australian TV Plays: Luther (15 July 1964)

Adaptation of the John Osborne play about Martin Luther. I think this was the only John Osborne produced by the ABC.

Premise

A biographical play about the life of Luther during the years of 1506–1530. The play shows his marriage and the interactions he had with the people in his life.

The play begins at Erfart monastery in 1506. Brother Martin, the son of a middle class miner but already a brilliant scholar, renounces the world and receives the monk's habit of the Augustinian Order of Eremits. It ends 21 years later with married Luther living in secluion and quiet domesticity with his wife Katherine, a nun who has withdrawn from convent life, and theur baby son.

Following his ordination, Luther lecturer in philosophy at the University of Wittensetein in 1511 then was sent to Rome in 1511. After his return his career as a reformer began.

Cast

Terry Norris as Martin Luther
Syd Conabere as Knight
Douglas Kelly as Johann Tetzel
Michael Duffield as Staupitz
Brian James as Cajetan
William Lloyd as Prior
James Lynch as Hans
Peter Aanensen as Lucas
George Whaley as Brother Weinand
Beverley Dunn as Katherine
Glen Farmer as Militz
Michael Cole as Pope Leo X
Keith Lee as Eck
John Royle as Emperor
Ian Neill as Ulrich
Ray Angel as archbishop
Colin McEwan as one of the monks

Original play

The play debuted in 1961. It was considered a change of pace from Osborne best known for his Angry Young Man works like Look Back in Anger. The play was successful in London, helped by Albert Finney playing the lead role and Tony Richardson directed. This play got a big spread in the Age in 1961.

It played on Broadway in 1964.

Other Productions

The play was produced on stage in Melbourne in 1962.

The BBC did it for radio in 1965 and TV in 1968 (with Robert Shaw). So the ABC did it before the BBC!

Production

The decision to produce to play in Australia may have been influenced by the success of the film Tom Jones which like the original production of Luther was written by Osborne, starred Finney and directed by Richardson. The play also won the Tony Award for Best Play in 1964.

The play was shot in Melbourne. Philip Grenville Mann did the script adaptation. Chris Muir directed.

The play had a cast of 34 and was headlined by Norris, who that year had already been seen in Nude with Violin, The Sponge Room and The Physicists.

Colin McEwan, who played a monk, was a radio personality.

It was designed by Paul Cleveland.

It was the TV acting debut of singer Michael Cole

Reception

The Age said it was a "baffling experience" which suffered from being shorn of 30 minutes of material from the play.^.

This review prompted a letter of response from Chris Muir who argued the presentation was consistent with the wishes of Osborne.

TV Times said the work was the best ever done by Muir, saying he felt Muir was an erratic director.

The Sydney Morning Herald called it "quite painfully cramped and distorted... Norris made Luther hardly credible... the play seemed to take place in the vacuum"^.

The Canberra Times said "Christopher Muir's production, the best so far this year, was among the most successful of all local productions, at least .since Ray Menmuir's departure. The first moments of the play, in particular, made spectacular television. . There have been productions when Muir’s peculiar genius seemed more at home with cameras than with actors. This was certainly not true of Luther, in spite of technical direction as imaginative and near-faultless as any we have seen."