Christopher Fry
Christopher Fry | |
---|---|
Born | Arthur Hammond Harris 18 December 1907 Bristol, England |
Died | 30 June 2005 Chichester, England | (aged 97)
Occupation | Playwright, screenwriter, translator, critic |
Education | Bedford Modern School |
Notable works | The Lady's Not for Burning |
Spouse | Phyllis Marjorie Hart Fry (1936–1987) |
Christopher Fry (18 December 1907 – 30 June 2005) was an English poet and playwright. He is best known for his verse dramas, especially The Lady's Not for Burning, which made him a major force in theatre in the 1940s and 1950s.[1]
Biography
Early life
Fry was born as Arthur Hammond Harris He adopted Elizabeth Fry's faith, and became a Quaker.
After attending Bedford Modern School, where he wrote amateur plays,[3] he became a schoolteacher, working at the Bedford Froebel Kindergarten and Hazelwood School in Limpsfield, Surrey.
In the 1920s, he met the writer Robert Gittings, who became a lifelong friend.[5]
Career
Fry gave up his school career in 1932 to found the
His play about Dr. Thomas John Barnardo, the founder of children's homes, toured in a fund-raising amateur production in 1935 and 1936, including Deborah Kerr in its cast.
His professional career began to take off when he was commissioned by the vicar of
Tewkesbury Abbey commissioned his next play, The Tower, written in 1939, which was seen by the poet T. S. Eliot, who became a friend and is often cited as an influence.[3] In 1939 Fry also became artistic director of Oxford Playhouse.
A
After the War, he wrote a comedy, A Phoenix Too Frequent, which was produced at the Mercury Theatre, Notting Hill Gate, and revived at the Arts Theatre London, in 1946, starring Paul Scofield, Hermione Hannen, and Joan White. The show is a comedy that is based upon Petronius's tale of the Ephesian widow, the false heroics of Dynamene's mourning of her husband in his tomb, and her reawakening to the joy of life by a handsome officer who enters the tomb to rest on a course of duty.
The Firstborn was produced at the Oxford Playhouse in 1948. The plot is that of Egypt in the throes of a threatening conflict between master and slave, with Moses denouncing his privileges as an Egyptian-reared soldier and finding new responsibility as a leader of his people. The play was produced by actress Katharine Cornell and featured two songs specially written for the play by Leonard Bernstein.
In 1948 he wrote a commission for the Canterbury Festival, Thor, With Angels.
Major works
Fry was then commissioned to write a play by Alec Clunes, manager of the Arts Theatre in London. The result, The Lady's Not for Burning, was first performed there in 1948, directed by the actor Jack Hawkins. Due to its success, it transferred to the West End for a nine-month run, starring John Gielgud and featuring Richard Burton and Claire Bloom among the cast. It was presented on Broadway in 1950, again with Burton. The play marked a revival in popularity for poetic drama, most notably espoused by T.S. Eliot. It is the most performed of all his plays and inspired British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to declaim, "You turn if you want to — the lady’s not for turning," at the Conservative Party conference in 1980.[6]
In 1950, Fry adapted a translation of Jean Anouilh’s Invitation to the Castle as Ring Round the Moon for director Peter Brook. He also wrote Venus Observed, which was produced at the St James's Theatre by Laurence Olivier. A Sleep of Prisoners followed in 1951, first performed at St Thomas' church in Regent Street, London, in 1951 and later touring with Denholm Elliott and Stanley Baker.
His next plays were translations from French dramatists: The Lark, an adaptation of
Although Fry lived until 2005, his poetic style of drama began to fall out of fashion with the advent of the
Curtmantle's (1962) plot deals with Henry II of England and his conflict with Thomas Becket. A Yard of Sun (1970) is set just after World War II at the time of the famous annual horse race Palio di Siena in the streets of Siena.
After the success of his post-war plays Fry bought Trebinshwn, a fine
During the next ten years, he concentrated on further translations, including Henrik Ibsen’s Peer Gynt and Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac which were produced at the Chichester Festival Theatre.[9]
In 1986, he wrote One Thing More, a play about the 7th century Northumbrian monk Cædmon who was suddenly given the gift of composing song;[10] The play was first broadcast on BBC radio,[11] and then performed by the Next Stage Company directed by Joan White at Chelsea Old Church, November 1988,[12] and at Whitby Abbey in Yorkshire, June 1989. Further productions followed in London and Oxford.[13]
His last play, A Ringing Of Bells, was commissioned by his old school, Bedford Modern School, and performed there in 2000. The following year, a new production was performed at the National Theatre.
In later life Fry lived in the village of East Dean in West Sussex,[14] and died, from natural causes, in Chichester in 2005.[2] His wife, Phyllis, whom he married in 1936, died in 1987. He was survived by their son, Tam.
Revivals
Revivals of his plays include a staged reading of The Lady's Not For Burning at the National Theatre in 2001 as one of the 100 best plays of the 20th century, with actors Alex Jennings, Prunella Scales and Samuel West. West went on to produce The Lady’s Not For Burning at Chichester Festival Theatre's Minerva Theatre in 2002 with Nancy Carroll and Benjamin Whitrow. In 2007, it was performed in a new production at the Finborough Theatre, London.
Ring Round The Moon was revived at the Theatre Royal Haymarket 1967-68. starring John Standing and Angela Thorne. In 2008, it was revived again, directed by Sean Mathias, once again starring Angela Thorne, graduating from the role of young Diana to the wheelchair-using Madame Desmortes. Other cast members included JJ Feild, Joanna David, Belinda Lang, John Ramm and Leigh Lawson.[15]
Legacy
In commemoration of his achievements, Bedford Modern School named the new Junior School hall after him.
Bibliography
Film and TV writing
Beginning in the 1950s, many of Fry's plays were adapted for the screen, mainly television. A version of The Lady’s Not For Burning was produced by Yorkshire Television, starring Kenneth Branagh, in 1987.
Fry collaborated with
His television movie scripts are The Canary (1950), The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1968), The Brontës of Haworth (1973), The Best of Enemies (1976), Sister Dora (1977), and Star Over Bethlehem (1981).
Works
- She Shall Have Music (1934), with Monte Crick and F. Eyton
- Open Door (1936)
- The Boy With a Cart (1938)
- Robert of Sicily: Opera for Children (1938), music by Michael Tippett
- Seven at One Stroke: A Play for Children (1939), music by Michael Tippett
- The Tower (1939)
- Thursday's Child (1939), music by Martin Shaw
- A Phoenix Too Frequent (1946)
- The Firstborn (1946)
- The Lady's Not for Burning (1948)
- Thor, With Angels (1948)
- Venus Observed (1950)
- L'Invitation au Château
- A Winter's Tale (1951) music by Fry with arrangements by Leslie Bridgewater
- A Sleep of Prisoners (1951)
- The Dark is Light Enough(1954)
- The Lark (1955), adapted from Jean Anouilh's play
- Tiger At The Gates (1956), adapted from Jean Giraudoux's play
- Crown of the Year (1958), music by Michael Tippett
- Duel of Angels (1958), adapted from Jean Giraudoux's play Pour Lucrèce
- Curtmantle (1961)
- Judith (1962), adapted from Jean Giraudoux's play
- The Boy and the Magic (1964), adapted from Colette's play
- Peer Gynt (1970), based on Johan Fillinger's translation of Henrik Ibsen's play
- A Yard of Sun (1970)
- Cyrano de Bergerac (1975), adapted from Edmond Rostand's play
- Can You Find Me: A Family History (1979)
- One Thing More (or Caedmon Construed) (1986)
- A Ringing of Bells (2001)
Awards
- 1948 Shaw Prize Fund for The Lady's Not for Burning
- 1951 William Foyle Poetry Prize for Venus Observed
- 1951 New York Drama Critics Circle Award for The Lady's Not for Burning
- 1952 New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Venus Observed
- 1956 New York Drama Critics CircleAward for The Tiger At The Gates
- 1956 Tony Awardnomination for The Tiger At The Gates
- 1962 Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry
- 1962 Heinemann Award, Royal Society of Literature for Curmantle
- 1966 Doctor of Arts from Manchester Metropolitan University
- 1971 Writers Guild Best British Television Dramatization award nomination for The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
- 1987 Oxford University
- 1988 Honorary Fellow of Manchester Metropolitan University
- 1994 Doctor of Letters from De Montfort University
- 1994 Doctor of Letters from University of Sussex
- 2000 Benson Medal Fellow and Recipient
Quotes
Try thinking of love, or something. Amor vincit insomnia.
— Christopher Fry, A Sleep of Prisoners
Life is a hypocrite if I can't live
The way it moves me!— Christopher Fry, A Sleep of Prisoners
If this is less than your best, then never, in my presence,
Be more than your less: never!— Christopher Fry, A Phoenix Too Frequent
References
- ISBN 978-0-19-954089-1.
- ^ doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/95886. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ a b c d e Nightingale, Benedict (5 July 2005). "Christopher Fry, British Playwright in Verse, Dies at 97". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
- ^ The Times obituary
- ODNB online(subscription required), accessed 10 August 2008
- ^ Mrs Thatcher quotation in The Penguin Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Quotations, edited by JM and MJ Cohen, (Viking, 1993)
- ^ Mosel, Leading Lady: The World and Theatre of Katharine Cornell
- ^ C. Fry, Death is a Kind of Love
- ^ "Article on theatre history website Rogues and Vagabonds". Archived from the original on 16 January 2009. Retrieved 9 February 2008.
- OCLC 19518731– via Open WorldCat.
- ^ Radio Times
- ^ The Times 5 Nov. 1988
- ^ Museum, Victoria and Albert. "Document | Fry, Christopher | V&A Explore The Collections". Victoria and Albert Museum: Explore the Collections.
- ^ "Interview with Christopher Fry". 16 May 1989. Archived from the original on 30 May 2008. Retrieved 29 September 2007.
- ^ Stage review of the Playhouse Theatre 2008 revival of Ring Round the Moon [1]
External links
- Christopher Fry at IMDb
- Christopher Fry: An Appreciation (1951) by Derek Stanford
- "Christopher Fry" Obituary from The Telegraph
- Michael Billington, "Christopher Fry" (obituary), The Guardian, 4 July 2005
- Christopher Fry Broadway productions of his plays
- Benedict Nightingale, "Christopher Fry, British Playwright in Verse, Dies at 97", The New York Times, 5 July 2005
- Christopher Fry Theatre history website Rogues and Vagabonds
- Christopher Fry Collection at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin
- The Christopher Fry, playwright: papers are held by the Victoria and Albert Museum Theatre and Performance Department.
- "Christopher Fry", Fellows Remembered, The Royal Society of Literature
- Christopher Fry at the Internet Broadway Database