THE NORMAN CONQUESTS
PBS, June 14, 21 and 28
Three years ago British Playwright Alan Ayckbourn's The Norman Conquests came to Broadway and failed to conquer. Though a huge critical and commercial hit in London, this comic trilogy barely limped through a six-month New York City run. It was not difficult to figure out what had gone wrong: unlike such other recent imports as Peter Shaffer's Equus and Simon Gray's Otherwise Engaged, The Norman Conquests had been given an indifferent production. Miscast American actors clobbered the wit out of Ayckbourn's words. Now, through...