{{Short description|Play by Robert Wales}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2019}} {{Infobox play | name = The Cell | image = | image_size = | caption = | writer = [[Robert Wales]] | characters = | setting = | premiere = 28 April 1966 | place = Independent Theatre, Sydney | orig_lang = English | subject = | genre = }}
'''''The Cell''''' is an Australian play by [[Robert Wales]]. The setting is in a school for delinquent girls.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article136926538 |title=THREE PAGES FOR WOMEN TWO ACTRESSES EXPLAIN HOW... |newspaper=[[The Canberra Times]] |date=8 June 1966 |access-date=6 June 2015 |page=21 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article131775188 |title=New Sydney play's two night season |newspaper=[[The Canberra Times]] |volume=40 |issue=11,478 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |date=26 May 1966 |access-date=18 February 2019 |page=26 |via=National Library of Australia}} </ref>
==Background== The play debuted in 1966.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article230668379 |title=AT SYDNEY THEATRES "The Cell" |newspaper=[[Le Courrier Australien]] |issue=10 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=11 March 1966 |access-date=18 February 2019 |page=8 |via=National Library of Australia}} </ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article136926581 |title=leisure — the arts The Cell has lighter side |newspaper=[[The Canberra Times]] |volume=40 |issue=11,489 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |date=8 June 1966 |access-date=18 February 2019 |page=25 |via=National Library of Australia}} </ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article136926868 |title=leisure—the arts THEATRE More thrills than insight |newspaper=[[The Canberra Times]] |volume=40 |issue=11,491 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |date=10 June 1966 |access-date=18 February 2019 |page=15 |via=National Library of Australia}} </ref>
The play was published in 1971.
==1968 Australian TV version== It was adapted for television by the ABC in 1968, directed by [[John Croyston]], and broadcast as part of the '''Seek and Destroy''' series.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/106397|title=AusStage|website=www.ausstage.edu.au|access-date=25 October 2017}}</ref> That was a short lived anthology series which consisted of four BBC plays and one Australian play - ''The Cell'' was the Australian play.<ref>{{Cite news|newspaper=The Age|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/122310411/?terms=%22seek%20and%20destroy%22%20abc&match=1|title=New Shows|date=29 August 1968|page=31}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|first=Harry|last=Robinson|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/120430535/?terms=%22seek%20and%20destroy%22%20abc&match=1|newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald|date=14 August 1968|title=Budget Eclipsed|page=14}}</ref>
Australian TV drama was relatively rare at the time.<ref>{{cite magazine|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/60-australian-tv-plays-1950s-60s/|magazine=Filmink|title=60 Australian TV Plays of the 1950s & '60s|date=February 18, 2019}}</ref> ''The Cell'' was made when Australian TV stations were investing less in TV plays and more in serials.
===Plot=== Sister Catherine is in charge of a school for delinquent girls. She resents being passed over as Mother Superior of the Convent. When the new Mother Superior, Mother Denis, arrives, there is a clash of personalities between the two. This is heightened when Sister Catherine sides with a young nun, Sister Lenora, who has broken the discipline of the convent. When the Mother Superior dies, Sister Catherine, who was in charge of the convent infirmary and drugs, comes under suspicion.<ref>{{cite news|title=Conflict in the Cloister|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/122469543/?terms=%22seek%20and%20destroy%22%20abc&match=1|date=19 September 1968|page=35|newspaper=The Age}}</ref>
===Cast=== * [[Ruth Cracknell]] as Sister Catherine * June Winchester as Mother Denis * Betty Lucas as Sister Lenora * [[Don Crosby]]
===Production=== Croyston decided to film the action all in one take "to enable the cast to hold the edge of emotional distraction".<ref>{{cite news|date=4 September 1968|page=6|newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald|title=Jon v John|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/120457771/?terms=%22seek%20and%20destroy%22%20abc&match=1|first=Harry|last=Robinson}}</ref>
===Reception=== The ''Sydney Morning Herald'' called the production "a victory for the local industry".<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald|title=On Air|date=5 September 1968|page=On Air|first=Harry|last=Robinson}}</ref>
The same reviewer later called it one of the best TV plays of the year saying "for writing and execution this play had class, high class."<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald|first=Harry|last=Robinson|date=30 December 1968|page=6|title=TV as Theatre|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/120606340/?terms=%22the%20cell%22%20%22robert%20wales%22&match=1}}</ref>
==1968 British version== It was also adapted for television by the BBC in England as ''A Swallow's Nest'' in 1968.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/bbctwo/england/1968-01-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141019175512/http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/bbctwo/england/1968-01-29|url-status=dead|archive-date=19 October 2014|title=BBC Two England - 29 January 1968 - BBC Genome|website=genome.ch.bbc.co.uk|access-date=25 October 2017}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *{{AusStage|event/13730|Original production details}} *{{AusStage|work/6338|Australian productions}} *{{AustLit|C385978|i=yes}} *{{IMDb title|qid=Q123527937|title=A Swallow's Nest}}
{{John Croyston}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cell}} [[Category:1960s Australian television plays]] [[Category:1966 plays]] [[Category:1968 television plays]] [[Category:1960s Australian plays]] [[Category:Australian plays adapted for television]]