Tilts new play by Christ$pher Fry, produced by Michael Macowan,
was written with more than one special purpose. It was written for the Religious Drama Society, who are promoting religious plays for the Festival of Britain, and Mr. Fry has used the opportunity to experiment in some new directions. His meaning is conveyed more firmly than ever before, probably because his dialogue is less exuberant and his reliance on action more confident. At St. Mary's Church, Oxford, on Monday ft was not easy to grasp all the under- lying allusiveness of the work. The acoustics of St. Mary's are notoriously weak for dramatic purposes. But within the self- imposed limits of a church play Fry succeeded in holding his audience.
To judge the play from standards of the theatre would be to miss a great deal of its force. A Sleep of Prisoners is not theatre drama. The time has not yet arrived when religious festival plays can be properly synthesised with modern stage requirements, and so, to those who look for the swift dovetailing of events which the stage demands, the play is certain to appear awkwardly con- structed. It is arranged in one long act without interval, and carries only four characters, all male. The action occupies one night, during which four prisoners-of-war arc confined in a church in a foreign country. The theme rests on a succession of four biblical incidents, occurring in the dreams of one of the men ; the other three prisoners are the protagonists of these dream-flashes.
First the story of Cain's murder of Abel is presented. (It seems to be Fry's intention to date the Fall of Man from that act.) Next comes the story of Absalom's treachery and death ; then. Abraham's reprieve from the sacrifice of Isaac ; lastly, Jonah and the whale. Each story is approached in a highly original manner with emphasis on its present-day significance. The Pilgrim Players—Denholm Elliott as Pte. Peter Able was particularly good—succeeded in inter- preting the piece as a modern miracle play. Their miming, where the austerity of stage-scenery required it, was excellent. M. S.'
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