Fry: Plays Three (The Firstborn, A Phoenix Too Frequent, A Sleep of Prisoners, Thor, With Angels, The Boy With a Cart, Caedmon Construed and A Ringing of Bells). Christopher Fry
Includes the plays The 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.
