Christopher Fry plays 1

(Paperback)

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Includes the plays The Lady's Not for Burning, A Yard of Sun and Siege In this volume of Christopher Fry's original stage work, his most famous play The Lady's Not for Burning - 'Spring' in his set of 'Seasonal Plays' - is joined by the 'Summer' play A Yard of Sun, written in the mid-1930's. Celebrated for the sensuousness and joyous wit of its language, The Lady's Not for Burning is a key play in the revival of verse drama in the 1940's, and the scale of its success made Fry one of the most famous playwrights of his day. A Yard of Sun, Fry's last full-length stage play, is set in Siena just after the end of World War Two. Without ignoring the struggles and privations of war, the play is funny, touching and ultimately optimistic. Based on the medieval story of Aucassin and Nicolette and conceived as a form of 'pageant', Siege with its mixing of verse and prose, sprawling structure, employment of different speech patterns and deliberately contemporary touches, gives a unique insight into Fry's development as a stage-craftsman.

Author Bio

Christopher Fry was born Arthur Hammond Harris in 1907. After a short stint as a teacher, he renamed himself Christopher Fry, and during the 1930s worked in a variety of theatrical jobs. After the Second World War he began to make a name for himself as a verse dramatist with the one-act play A Phoenix Too Frequent and the full-length drama The Firstborn (both 1946). However, the major success of his career came with The Lady's Not for Burning in 1948, which ran for nine months in the West End and is still frequently revived. He later wrote screenplays for Hollywood, as well as plays, adaptations and essays.