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accompany her; she goes with
Humphrey, as he is the host. The mayor comes into the room, and tries to get Thomas to go away but he escapes into the garden. Tappercoom enters and mocks the mayor's complaints about Jennet's beauty and charm tempting him, reminding him that after she's dead they will possess her substantial property. The Chaplain enters, unhappy about his failure to play a dance at the party. Tappercoom takes him back to the party to cheer him up. Richard enters to speak to the mayor, but the latter proclaims that he's going to lock himself in his room until morning. Thomas re-enters and speaks with Richard about the sadness of the situation. Alizon arrives, and Thomas quickly goes back to the garden to give them privacy. When Richard half-heartedly defends the laws to Alizon, who is distraught over the unfairness of the burning, she says she loves him and not Humphrey. They agree to escape together and Richard rushes to get his savings. On leaving, he is stopped by Margaret, who is looking for Alizon, and misdirects her. Jennet, Humphrey, and Nicholas return from dancing. Richard is stopped once again, by Nicholas, who takes him to the cellar to get more wine. Humphrey's attempt to seduce Jennet in exchange for her life is stopped by Thomas. Jennet, upset, yells at Thomas, who admits his love for her. Nicholas re-enters, complaining that Richard locked him in the cellar. Margaret arrives, very befuddled and unable to comprehend what has been going on in her house. Thomas and Jennet reconcile, and she tells him she doesn't believe he is a murderer. Richard and Alizon return with Old Skipps, who everyone claimed was dead or a dog, and Humphrey and Nicholas bring Tappercoom and the chaplain. Richard and Alizon slip off whilst everyone is distracted by the old man. Tappercoom is satisfied that there is no witch or murderer, and Margaret sends her sons to take the very drunk old man home before leaving with the Chaplain. As he goes to bed, Tappercoom hints that Jennet and Thomas could quietly leave town before morning. Thomas, despite his continuing disgust with mankind, agrees to accompany Jennet to whatever new place she goes, and they escape into the night.
341:
about the alleged crimes of Thomas and Jennet. The
Chaplain suggests inviting Thomas to the family's party that night, thinking that this will cheer Thomas up and make him leave. Despite the family's shock, the Justice considers the proposal. Meanwhile, Richard enters, somewhat drunk. He is depressed about Thomas and Jennet, and about his hopelessness over Alizon. He reveals that Humphrey and Nicholas were sitting in the cellar with Jennet, not saying a word. The mayor, still displeased with Richard's refusal to fetch a constable, commands him to scrub the floor. Nicholas enters, ecstatic and bloody, followed by Humphrey, who explains that Nicholas attempted to address the crowd and was hit by a brick. Margaret questions her boys on their contact with Jennet. Nicholas claims his own intentions were honorable, but disparages Humphrey's. Margaret takes Nicholas off to be cleaned up. To determine the guilt of the prisoners, the mayor proposes that he, Humphrey, Tappercoom, and the Chaplain hide upstairs and eavesdrop on Jennet and Thomas. Thomas talks about how awful humanity is, and Jennet explains that people think she's a witch because they claim that she turned Old Skipps, the same man that Thomas claims to have murdered, into a dog. They grow closer as they talk, and Jennet finally declares that she loves him, whether he's the devil or not. The Mayor re-enters with his company. Taking her declaration as an admission of guilt, he demands she be burned the next day. Thomas is outraged both at the sentence and the fact that he's being ignored, but the Justice proclaims him guilty only of being depressing and depressed, and sentences him to attend the party that night. Thomas reluctantly consents, provided that Jennet is also allowed to attend; he threatens to inform the whole countryside that the mayor and Tappercoom released a murderer if they don't agree. They do, as does Jennet, if somewhat despondently.
337:
immediately feel a connection, although their conversation is interrupted by Thomas' asides. Shortly afterwards, Nicholas, Humphrey's brother, enters and declares that he has killed
Humphrey in a battle over Alizon, and thus deserves her hand in marriage. Margaret, who is Mayor Tyson's sister and the mother of Nicholas and Humphrey, arrives. Nicholas and Richard are sent to get Humphrey from the garden, where he lies quite alive. Noises outside the house reveal a witch-hunt is in progress; Thomas repeatedly reminds everyone that he is there to be hanged, asking why his wish is ignored. The Mayor comes in and says that Thomas shall not be hanged without reason, prompting Thomas to claim that he has killed two people. The Mayor does not believe him. The accused witch, Jennet, then enters. After recounting her accusers' wild tales about her mystical powers, and laughing over their ludicrous nature, she is shocked to hear that the Mayor also believes them. The mayor sends Richard to get the constable to have her arrested, but Richard does not do so as he does not think she is a witch. The Chaplain enters next, apologizing for his lateness for evening prayers. Thomas claims to be the devil and that the world will soon end. The Mayor has both him and Jennet arrested.
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Later on, the mayor and
Tappercoom, the Justice, discuss the prisoners' unusual reactions to the mild tortures they are being put through; Jennet will not admit to any crimes at all, whilst Thomas continually admits to new ones. Margaret rushes in, horrified by the clamor the crowd outside is making
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began, "Now irrevocably associated with
Margaret Thatcher's bad pun, Christopher Fry's verse drama about a medieval witch-hunt was a surprise hit, sparking a resurgence of poetic plays in the 1940s and 1950s". She noted that the cast of Gielgud's production later in 1949 was generally well received
344:
That evening, Thomas, Humphrey, and
Nicholas are bored together, waiting for Jennet to be ready for the party. Margaret, vexed over Jennet's continued presence in her house, urges her sons to return to the festivities, but they decline. Jennet finally arrives, and the three men fight over who will
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noted, "Fry's pun-filled, semi-Shakespearean poetry may no longer be fashionable, but it has an exuberant charity that makes it irresistible. ... Fry's imagistic abundance may belong to the late 1940s, yet this play still has the power to charm". Kate
Britten, considering the same production for
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Thomas Mendip, a world-weary recently discharged soldier, wants to be hanged. Visiting the house of Hebble Tyson, the mayor of Cool Clary, he explains this to the mayor's clerk, Richard, through a window. Alizon, the fiancée of the Mayor's nephew
Humphrey, enters the room and she and Richard
462:
s Cecil Wilson was one of the few dissenting voices: he thought the play a 'crazy quilt of verbiage', and wondered whether 'such fiendish cleverness prove commercial'. It did: the play ran for nine months, then transferred to
Broadway, where there were nine curtain calls on press night".
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had the highest praise for the acting, while describing the playwright as precocious with "a touch of genius", but saying that the words were "sometimes soporific" and that the acting made the play. The play ran on
Broadway through March 1951, and received the
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praised 'the concentrated intensity, the special flame of Pamela Brown'". But, she added, "it was the play they really took to. Fry, thought Trewin, had 'the relish of the Elizabethan word-men', while for
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s Ivor Brown thought Gielgud 'happy, vigorous, enchanting', Burton 'most authentic' and Bloom 'as pretty as a May morning'. And in the
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had parts in the cast. It was revived on Broadway in 1983. In the United Kingdom, a reading was produced at the
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took the play on a provincial tour followed by a successful London run at the
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Gielgud, John, "Mr. Gielgud discovers Mr. Fry; Reliance on designer",
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76:. Gielgud took the play to the United States, where it opened on
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There have been at least four TV adaptations: 1950, starring
607:, a British Importation, Stars John Gielgud, Pamela Brown",
455:, but with a poet's mind'". Ellis concluded by saying, "The
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A romantic comedy in three acts, in verse, it is set in the
641:, Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 26 September 2021
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in 2006 and it was fully revived in a production at the
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private club for two weeks in London in 1949 starring
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Bemrose, John (8 June 1998). "Drama that delivers".
675:wins critics' prize; Drama circle award winners",
327:Source: Play text and Internet Broadway Database.
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68:, who had also commissioned it. Later that year
841:The Lady's Not for Burning
558:Review Database. New York: June 1998. p. n/a
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451:s W. A. Darlington, he was 'like a young
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603:, "Play by Fry bows tonight at Royale;
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417:Looking back on the play's origins for
414:award as Best Foreign Play of 1950–51.
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466:Reviewing a 2007 revival of the play,
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227:Humphrey Devize, brother of Nicholas
211:Margaret Devize, mother of Nicholas
159:Thomas Mendip, a discharged soldier
806:. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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886:Plays about witches and witchcraft
177:Alizon Eliot, fiancée of Humphrey
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405:The review of opening night by
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876:Plays set in the 14th century
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279:Edward Tappercoom, a Justice
108:Characters and original casts
769:review at Finborough London"
639:"The Lady's Not for Burning"
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622:Lawson, Carol. "Broadway",
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141:Richard, an orphaned clerk
74:Globe (now Gielgud) Theatre
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846:Internet Broadway Database
829:The Lady's Not for Burning
803:The Lady's Not For Burning
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767:The Lady's Not for Burning
734:The Lady's Not for Burning
700:, Globe Theatre, May 1949"
698:The Lady's Not for Burning
628:, 16 September 1983, p. C2
605:The Lady's Not for Burning
586:The Lady's Not for Burning
550:The Lady's Not for Burning
496:The lady's not for turning
35:The Lady's Not for Burning
800:Fry, Christopher (1989).
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84:on 8 November 1950, with
891:Witch hunting in fiction
881:Plays by Christopher Fry
871:Fiction set in the 1400s
659:, 9 November 1950, p. 42
613:, 8 November 1950, p. 49
573:, 5 November 1950, p. 98
243:Hebble Tyson, the Mayor
60:It was performed at an
27:Oxford University Press
16:Play by Christopher Fry
835:British Film Institute
349:Television adaptations
57:'s pastoral comedies.
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681:, 4 April 1951. p. 34
428:by theatre critics: "
365:is available through
25:Cover first edition:
24:
653:, "At the theater",
548:Friedlander, Mira. "
88:as the female lead.
728:Billington, Michael
446:The Daily Telegraph
383:Richard Chamberlain
375:Christopher Plummer
363:further information
261:Jennet Jourdemayne
104:, London, in 2007.
678:The New York Times
656:The New York Times
637:Fry, pp. 4–5; and
625:The New York Times
610:The New York Times
570:The New York Times
538:(23). Toronto: 51.
477:Michael Billington
401:Critical reception
102:Finborough Theatre
38:is a 1948 play by
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813:978-0-19-831959-7
730:(21 April 2007).
500:Margaret Thatcher
475:s theatre critic
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214:Henzie Raeburn
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270:Pamela Brown
206:David Evans
203:David Evans
186:Claire Bloom
168:John Gielgud
118:Arts, London
94:Claire Bloom
86:Pamela Brown
70:John Gielgud
62:Arts Theatre
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51:World War II
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361:on BBC TV (
359:Alec Clunes
320:Esme Percy
290:Peter Bull
287:Peter Bull
255:George Howe
163:Alec Clunes
128:11 May 1948
66:Alec Clunes
55:Shakespeare
47:Middle Ages
866:1948 plays
860:Categories
506:References
457:Daily Mail
367:BBC Genome
316:Esme Percy
283:Peter Bull
132:Royale, NY
115:Character
774:The Stage
531:Maclean's
518:Fry, p. 4
483:The Stage
423:in 2003,
369:); 1958 (
777:. London
744:. London
708:. London
490:See also
379:Mary Ure
332:Synopsis
78:Broadway
844:at the
833:at the
794:Sources
555:Variety
371:Omnibus
80:at the
831:(1950)
810:
781:21 May
748:21 May
712:23 May
437:Sketch
29:, 1949
473:'
460:'
449:'
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808:ISBN
783:2017
750:2017
714:2017
453:Shaw
393:and
385:and
377:and
357:and
92:and
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
