by Peter Oswald
The London Premiere rehearsed reading
Cast:
Lucian Willow - Mark Rylance
Lord Brook - Terry McGinty
Sarah Brook - Juliet Rylance
Wulf - David Sturzaker
Reginalda Chichester - Jules Melvin
Ronaldo - John McEnery
Clara - Penny Diamond
Ursula Rumdyke - Penny Diamond
20 February 2006
A full production of Lucifer Saved was presented at the Finborough Theatre in 2007. Details here
Peter Oswald writes:
"It was inspired by the trial of Lord Aldington, in about 1982. He was a Governor of my school, Winchester College. He was accused of having committed a war crime whilst commanding a regiment of the British Army in the Second World War. The school was assembled to hear Lord Aldington roundly telling us that it was a load of nonsense and he was completely innocent. However I, as a schoolboy under his power, decided he was guilty and that I would write a play about a British Army commander in the Second World War committing a war crime. In the play, Lord Brook has committed a war crime and succeeded in getting the blame fixed on Lucian Willow, who was his regimental Chaplain at the time. The Rev Willow was knocked out by a bomb blast at the same time that the crime was committed, and lost his memory. So he can’t defend himself against the guilt that’s attached to him. He is wheelchair bound, not because he is crippled, but because he believes he can’t walk. Lord Brook looks after him and allows him to live on his estate. Every now and again Lucian’s memory stirs, and Lord Brook goes through the process of ‘reminding’ him of the crime he committed. Then Lucian sinks back into shock and amnesia. This situation is broken when Brook, in a state of desperate depression, is persuaded to hire a circus to come to his estate and entertain the children of the locality. The idea is that this will cure his depression, but one of the circus performers – Clara, the bearded woman – holds the secret to Lord Brook’s guilt and Willow’s innocence. And so the play unfolds....
My ten years of writing for the Globe – Augustine’s Oak, The Golden Ass, The Storm – have reinforced in my writing the use of extremes of comedy and tragedy within the same play. Lucifer Saved is a verse play in which tragic characters – Brook, Willow – are liberated by comic characters – the circus performers. The play was not commissioned, but is one I have worked on for a number of years. Last year the Devon-based theatre company I helped to found with Josephine Larsen, Heart’s Tongue, staged a rehearsed reading of Lucifer Saved, which was a great success at the Barn Theatre, Dartington Hall."
