Fry: Plays Three

Christopher Fry

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2007
• ISBN:
  9781849437622
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Drama
• Index: Literature

Includes the playsThe Firstborn, A Phoenix Too Frequent, A Sleep of Prisoners, Thor, With Angels, The Boy With a Cart, Caedmon Construed and A Ringing of Bells The third volume of Christopher Fry's original stage work brings together his only fully-fledged tragedy - The Firstborn, a vivid, urgent retelling of the Biblical story of Moses and the plagues of Egypt - and his six one-act plays, each revealing Fry's unique blend of humour and humanity. They include A Phoenix Too Frequent, a lively romance set in a Roman tomb, which first gave theatregoers notice of Fry's bravura talents as a verse dramatist; the meditative, resonant A Sleep of Prisoners, which links the Biblically-inspired dreams of four British POWs during World War Two; the Dark Age fable Thor, with Angels, with its characteristic themes of love and sacrifice; and two portraits of Anglo-Saxon churchmen, The Boy with a Cart and Caedmon Construed (also known as One Thing More), written fifty years apart. The collection concludes with Fry's brief 'conversational fantasy' A Ringing of Bells, set on the eve of the millennium and written for his old school, Bedford Modern.

THE FIRSTBORN

To my mother and my btother

Characters

ANATH BITHIAH, Pharaoh’s sister

TEUSRET, Pharaoh’s daughter

SETI THE SECOND, the Pharaoh

RAMESES, his son

MOSES

AARON, his brother

MIRIAM, his sister

SHENDI, Miriam’s son

Two OVERSEERS, a Minister (KEF)

A GUARD and a SERVANT

The action of the play takes place in the summer of 1200 BC, alternating between Pharaoh’s palace and Miriam’s tent.

The Firstborn was first performed at the Gateway Theatre, Edinburgh, on 6 September 1948, with the following cast:

ANATH BITHIAH, Athene Seyler

TEUSRET, Deidre Doone

SETI THE SECOND, Robert Speaight

RAMESES, Paul Hansard

MOSES, Ivan Brandt

AARON, Robert Sansom

MIRIAM, Henzie Raeburn

SHENDI, Robert Rietty

Director E Martin Browne

Winter Garden Theatre, London, 29 January 1952:

ANATH BITHIAH, Barbara Everest

TEUSRET, Ruth Trouncer

SETI THE SECOND, Mark Dignam

RAMESES, Tony Britton

MOSES, Alec Clunes

AARON, Cyril Luckham

MIRIAM, Dorothy Reynolds

SHENDI, Robert Rietty

Director John Fernald

Coronet Theatre, New York, 30 April 1958:

ANATH BITHIAH, Katharine Cornell

TEUSRET, Kathleen Widdoes

SETI THE SECOND, Torin Thatcher

RAMESES, Robert Drivas

MOSES, Anthony Quayle

AARON, Michael Strong

MIRIAM, Mildred Natwick

SHENDI, Michael Wager

Director Anthony Quayle

ACT ONE

Scene One

(The terrace of the palace of SETI THE SECOND, at Tanis. A morning in the summer of 1200 BC. A flight of steps (unseen) leads down through a gate to open ground. The terrace looks out upon an incompleted pyramid. A scream. Enter from the palace ANATH BITHIAH, a woman of fifty, sister to the Pharaoh, and TEUSRET, a girl of fifteen, the Pharaoh’s daughter.)

ANATH: What was it, Teusret?

TEUSRET: Did you hear it too?

ANATH: Some man is dead. That scream was password to a grave.

Look there: up go the birds!

TEUSRET: The heat on this terrace!

You could bake on these stones, Aunt Anath.

ANATH: Ask who it was.

TEUSRET: They’re working steadily at father’s tomb.

There’s no sign of trouble.

ANATH: We’re too far off to see.

We should know more if we could see their faces.

TEUSRET: (Calling down the steps.) Guard! Come up here.

ANATH: I should like to be certain.

Oh, that pyramid! Every day, watching it build,

Will make an old woman of me early.

It will cast a pretty shadow when it’s done.

Two hundred more men were taken on today,

Did you know that, Teusret? Your father’s in a hurry.

Their sweat would be invaluable to the farmers in this drought.

What pains they take to house a family of dust.

TEUSRET: It’s a lovely tomb.

ANATH: Yes, so it may be.

But what shall we do with all that air to breathe

And no more breath? I could as happily lie

And wait for eternal life in something smaller.

(Enter a GUARD.)

TEUSRET: What was that scream we heard?

GUARD: It’s nothing, madam.

ANATH: You are right. Nothing. It was something once

But now it is only a scare of birds in the air

And a pair of women with their nerves uncovered;

Nothing.

TEUSRET: Who was it screamed?

GUARD: One of the builders

Missed his footing, madam; merely an Israelite.

They’re digging him into the sand. No, over to the left.

TEUSRET: Oh, yes, I see them now. – That was all I wanted.

(Exit the GUARD.)

So that’s all right.

ANATH: Can you remember your cousin?

TEUSRET: Why, which cousin?

ANATH: My foster son. You knew him

When you were little. He lived with us in the palace.

TEUSRET: The birds are back on the roof now.

ANATH: Moses, Teusret.

TEUSRET: What, Aunt? Yes, I thin...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half-title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• THE FIRSTBORN
• THE BOY WITH A CART
• A PHOENIX TOO FREQUENT
• THOR, WITH ANGELS
• A SLEEP OF PRISONERS
• CAEDMON CONSTRUED
• A RINGING OF BELLS