Child's Play

Child's Play is a stage play written by Robert Marasco. It opened on Broadway on 12 February 1970 at the Royale Theatre and ran for 342 performances, closing on 12 December. The play was produced by David Merrick and directed by Joseph Hardy, with settings by Jo Mielziner. The leading roles were taken by Pat Hingle, Fritz Weaver and Ken Howard. Marasco's only produced play, he initially wrote the script in 1966 under the title The Dark. The atmosphere of the play, although not the plot, was derived from Marasco's experiences as a teacher of Latin and Greek at Regis High School, a highly regarded Jesuit school in Manhattan. The play was presented in London's West End in 1971, opening at the Queen's Theatre on 16 March. As on Broadway, the director and designer were, respectively, Hardy and Mielziner, with Laurence Harvey, Rupert Davies and Derek Fowlds in the cast. In 1972, Sidney Lumet directed a screen adaptation under the same title, starring James Mason, Robert Preston and Beau Bridges.