Any mature understanding of violence and pacifism must begin with an acknowledgement of the violence in one's own heart, and in A Sleep of Prisoners … Fry had defined the progression from the recognition of violence within to a complete pacifism. That play begins with the personal violence of Cain and Abel, moves through the political assassination of Absalom by Joab but condoned by David, progresses to the sacrificial offering of Isaac by Abraham, and concludes with Daniel's friends in...

Fry's plays concentrate on a group of closely related themes: the redemptive power of love, both eros and agapé; the wonder, paradoxes and unity of existence; the cycle of life, death and renewal; the operation of necessity and the nature of individuality; and man's relationship with the universe and with God. Several of his plays—The Boy with a Cart (1939), The Firstborn (1949), Thor, with Angels (1948), and A Sleep of Prisoners (1951)—are overtly religious, but the secul...

Unfortunately (and unjustly as well) the name of Christopher Fry has been linked with that nebulous monster, The Establishment. And since the mid-fifties responsible theatre in England, as elsewhere, has been out to get the Establishment. Fry, in my opinion, deserves more than a summary dismissal, a dismissal (for some) decided on by applying the criterion of guilt-by-association…. Christopher Fry has defined comedy as 'an escape, not from truth but from despair: a narrow escape into faith�...

[Phoenix] is a secular drama whose final statement is essentially religious. This statement results from a highly integrated structure that fuses the ancient tale with pagan myths and a Christian sub-structure—all subsumed within a vital, entertaining piece of dramatic craftsmanship. (p. 4) Phoenix embraces all three levels [of myth classification: Legends, based on historical fact, Folk or Fairy Tales, and Religious Myths]…. At the level of Fairy Tale, the title indicates the traditional patt...

Can you find me is precisely what its subtitle states, a family history…. In this case, although Christopher Fry has distinct recollections of the first eleven years of his life …, there is no question of our being given his own version of them. This is no child among you taking notes; there are no ruthless revelations. Neither is there any self-deception, which can be so much more alienating than any amount of ruthlessness. The "I" is almost purely formal. Not entirely formal, o...

Christopher Fry, has fashioned a chronicle of his family—a mini "Roots" if you will. While some of the more colorful relatives draw one's interest, the greater part of [Can You Find Me] is just plain dull. (p. 54) A biography of Christopher Fry might have been far more interesting, and much of the material in this book could have been boiled down to a very interesting introductory prologue, rather than an, at times, pointless family history. (p. 55)