The Winter's Tale play contains one of the most famous Shakespearean stage directions: "Exit, pursued by a bear", presaging the offstage death of Antigonus. It is not known whether Shakespeare used a real bear from the London bear-pits, or an actor in bear costume. The Royal Shakespeare Company, in one production of this play, used a large sheet of silk which moved and created shapes, to symbolise both the bear and the gale in which Antigonus is travelling. One comic moment in the play deals with a servant not realising that poetry featuring references to dildos is vulgar, presumably from not knowing what
The Wrecker (play) The Wrecker (play) The Wrecker is a British play, written in 1924 by Arnold Ridley and Bernard Merivale, and filmed in 1928-29. Much later Ridley played Private Godfrey in "Dad's Army". The play is about an old engine driver who thinks his engine is malevolent and self-aware. The finale is a huge train wreck using elaborate stage special-effects as per "The Ghost Train," an earlier and more famous play by Ridley. The play ran for 165 performances at St Martin's Theatre. It later played at the Cort Theatre on Broadway in 1928, where it ran for 40 performances. The play