W. B. Yeats’s Unpublished Talk on His Version of King Oedipus Broadcast from the BBC Belfast Studio on 8 September 1931

Abstract

W. B. Yeats’s first BBC talk was an introduction to his version of King Oedipus broadcast on 8 September 1931, 7.15–7.30 p.m. from the BBC Belfast Studio. The occasion was a performance of the play by the Abbey Players, which was broadcast the following week on the eve of their departure on an American acting tour. Though the BBC copy was destroyed during enemy action, a typescript survives in the Yeats papers (see Item 1 in George Whalley, “Yeats and Broadcasting”) from which the following transcript has been made. The transcript includes a note from the producer H. W. McMullen that the talk was billed as “Mr. W. B. Yeats on his version for the Modern Stage of the Greek play King Oedipus, to be broadcast from the Belfast Studio by the Abbey Players on September 14.”