A Bill of Divorcement (play)

A Bill of Divorcement is a play by English author Clemence Dane. It was her first play, and her most popular, and was adapted to films of the same name three times, in 1922, 1932, and 1940.
Synopsis.
Though it debuted in 1921, the play is set in the early 1930s. Margaret Fairfield divorces her husband, who has been in a mental hospital for many years, in order to remarry. Their daughter cares for the father and faces the fact that his mental illness may be hereditary. Although not permitted at the time in Britain, the play imagines a future where a divorce is permitted when a spouse is incurably insane. Due to evolving cultural views, divorce was a popular subject in novels and drama of this time period. 
London production.
The play debuted in London on March 14, 1921 at St Martin's Theatre, with Basil Dean as producer, and ran for 402 performances. The cast included Meggie Albanesi.
Broadway production.
The English actor Allan Pollock saw the play in London, and intrigued by the character of Hilary Fairfield, bought the American rights. Broadway producer Charles Dillingham had decided to try producing a dramatic play in New York for the next season (instead of his prior musical comedies) and agreed to take it on. In America, it debuted at George M. Cohan's Theatre on October 10, 1921. It got good reviews, but was a slow draw at first. The Cohan theatre had already planned to move to a new show when "Divorcement" began to get popular, so the show was moved to the Times Square Theater on November 7. It closed in March 1922, for a total run of 173 performances. After it closed on Broadway, it toured. Local productions occurred into the 1940s.
Adaptations.
The play has been adapted was to films of the same name three times. The 1922 silent version was a British production. The 1932 film was directed by George Cukor and starred John Barrymore and Katharine Hepburn. The 1940 film was directed by John Farrow.
Radio adaptations played in Britain in December 1935, in the United States in April 1941, in the United States on December 1, 1946.