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| Subtitle | A Nativity Play |
| First Written | 1946 |
| Genre | Drama |
| Origin | UK |
| Publisher | Faber & Faber |
| My Copy | KU library hardback |
| First Read | May 01, 2014 |
The Shadow Factory
The play is set in a slightly-mythical dreary factory, where a pompous manager seeks to control the daily minutiae of the lives of his workers. An artist and a parson intervene on Christmas Eve, and begin something like change begins to happen.
Noted on May 1, 2014
Another verse drama from Anne Ridler. Like her one about Thomas Cranmer, I'm not sure that it's good, by any means, but it's interesting.
I'm really drawn to occasional poetry and 'verse drama', with the built-in tension and history associated with writing about a big event. I love Auden's 'For the Time Being', another Christmas poem.
Noted on May 1, 2014
CARETAKER. We have always detected a lie. And we have endured.
WOMEN. Yes, we have endured.
Our pleasures monotonous, our loves inadequate,
Poverty constant, if not extreme;
We have been starved of more than food; and yet we have endured.
Quoted on May 7, 2014
DIRECTOR. You mean? O, but I hope it's clear
The service must be undenominational,
Nothing to tread on anyone's corns.
ARTIST. I don't think that was what he meant.
WILLIAM. You mean these things might do us harm,
Handling a live wire as if it were dead?
PARSON. A harm, or a good -- just as you choose
To call it.
Quoted on May 7, 2014
Listen, William: this is the truth.
Let your benevolent Director-God
(Your father's anger, your Mother's comfort)
Let him provide us all with work,
Refrigerators, leisure, sex --
The worm devours the apple still:
A bloody world, and bloody still.
Quoted on May 7, 2014
You know the advertising maxim:
Make your point by repetition,
Never mind the irritation.
Quoted on May 7, 2014