Editing Murder in the Cathedral (section)

==Performances==
[[File:Murder in the Cathedral (movie poster).jpg|frame|right|Movie poster for ''Murder in the Cathedral'']]

===First performance===
[[George Bell (bishop)|George Bell]], the [[Bishop of Chichester]], was instrumental in getting Eliot to work as writer with producer [[E. Martin Browne]] in producing the pageant play ''[[The Rock (play)|The Rock]]'' (1934). Bell then asked Eliot to write another play for the [[Canterbury Festival]] in 1935. Eliot agreed to do so if Browne once again produced (he did). The first performance of ''Murder in the Cathedral'' was given on 15 June 1935 in the Chapter House of Canterbury Cathedral. [[Robert Speaight]] played the part of Becket. The production then moved to the [[Mercury Theatre, Notting Hill Gate]] in London and ran there for several months.  In 1947 it was performed by [[Pilgrim Players]] at the [[Gateway Theatre (Edinburgh)|Gateway Theatre]], [[Leith Walk]] in the [[Edinburgh Festival Fringe 1947|first Edinburgh Festival Fringe]]. A significant performance of the play was held on 15 February 2018. Nithin Varghese, an assistant professor at [[St Berchmans College]] in [[Changanassery]], directed the play for the first time in [[Kerala]]. This performance was part of the golden jubilee celebration of the postgraduate program in English at the college. The play was staged on the outdoor stage located in front of the Arts Block, and received positive recognition from the audience for its adherence to [[T. S. Eliot]]'s original text.

===Television and film===
{{Main|Murder in the Cathedral (1951 film)}}
The play, starring [[Robert Speaight]], was broadcast live on British television by the [[BBC]] in 1936, during its first few months of broadcasting TV.<ref>{{Cite web| title=The History of the BBC: Here's Television – Part 3 | url=http://www.teletronic.co.uk/herestv3.htm | publisher=The Television History Resource Site | access-date=8 May 2009}}</ref>

The play was later made into a black and white film with the same title. It was directed by the Austrian director [[George Hoellering]] with music by the Hungarian composer [[Laszlo Lajtha]] and won the Grand Prix at the [[Venice Film Festival]] in 1951. It was released in the UK in 1952.<ref>''The New York Times'' Movie Reviews [https://www.nytimes.com/1952/03/26/archives/the-screen-in-review-eliots-murder-in-the-cathedral-britishmade.html Murder in the Cathedral]. Retrieved 23 October 2022.</ref><ref>{{IMDb title|qid=Q3241557|title=Murder in the Cathedral|description=(1952)}}</ref> In the film the fourth tempter is not seen. His voice was that of Eliot himself. Hoellering wrote that "in stage productions [the knights' final] speeches amused the audience instead of shocking them, and thereby made them miss the point—the whole point of the play." In light of this, he asked Eliot for changes; and Eliot made major reductions to the speeches and added a shorter speech.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Eliot |first1=T. S. |last2=Hoellering |first2=George |title=The Film of Murder in the Cathedral |date=1952 |publisher=Faber and Faber Limited |location=24 Russell Square, London, W. C. 1 |pages=13–14 |url=https://archive.org/details/filmofmurderinca0000elio/mode/2up }}</ref>

It was filmed by the ABC in 1962.<ref name="play">{{cite magazine|magazine=Filmink|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/3-forgotten-australian-television-plays/|title=3 Forgotten Australian Television Plays|first= Stephen|last= Vagg|date=27 August 2022}}</ref>

===Opera===
The play is the basis for the opera ''[[Assassinio nella cattedrale]]'' by the Italian composer [[Ildebrando Pizzetti]], first performed at [[La Scala]], Milan, in 1958.

===Recordings===

Full-cast recordings of the play include the following, with the actor playing Becket.

* 1938 [[Reynolds Evans]] by ''[[Columbia Workshop]]'' (abridged for radio)
* 1953 [[Robert Donat]] by [[Angel Records]] 
* 1968 [[Paul Scofield]] by [[Caedmon Records]]
* 1976 [[Richard Pasco]] of [[The Royal Shakespeare Company]] by [[Argo Records]]
* 1988 [[Peter Barkworth]] by [[BBC Radio 4]] broadcast