The Hampstead Players 2008 Autumn Production
Thursday
20 - Saturday 22 November 2008
Hampstead
Parish Church
The
action of T S Eliot's play Murder in the Cathedral takes place
between the 2nd and 29th December, 1170. It covers the period between
the return of Thomas Becket to his See of Canterbury after exile and
his murder by four knights, who have perhaps taken too literally some
words of exasperation from King Henry II.
Read
the Director's Introduction
PERFORMANCES
Thursday 20 November 2007 at 7.30pm
Friday 21 November 2007 at 7.30pm
Saturday 22 November 2007 at 2.30pm
Saturday 22 November 2007 at 7.30pm
HAMPSTEAD
PARISH CHURCH, CHURCH ROW, NW3
Nearest Tube:
Hampstead (Northern Line)
Click
here for a map
Tickets
£10
Concessions
£8
Senior Citizens/Under 18s/Students/Unemployed
HOW
TO BOOK
BY POST
Send a cheque made payable to The Hampstead Players, stating your preferred performance date, the number of tickets you require at each price, and your telephone number, to: Hampstead Players Box Office, Hampstead Parish Church, Church Row, London, NW3 6UU.
Tickets will be held for collection at the Box Office prior to the performance. Please arrive in good time to collect them. If you would like them posted please supply a stamped, addressed envelope and allow ten days.
ONLINE
Click
here to book online
A booking fee of £1 will be added to each online transaction.
Tickets
will be held for collection at the Box Office prior to the performance.
Please arrive
in good time to collect them.
AT
THE DOOR
Tickets
will be on sale at the door at all performances, from half an hour
before the performance start time.
INFORMATION
020 7431 4620
THE CAST
Chorus
of Women of Canterbury
Heather Allan
Gaynor Bassey
Judy Burgess
Patrice Dorling
Clemency Keily-Baxter
Margaret Pritchard
Nicki Siddall
First
Priest
Jon Siddall
Second
Priest
Tim Sowula
Third
Priest
Simon Malpas
Messenger
Stephen Clarke
Thomas,
Archbishop of Canterbury
David Gardner
First
Tempter/First Knight
Robin Saikia
Second
Tempter/Second Knight
Said Abdallah
Third
Tempter/Third Knight
Adam Baxter
MURDER
IN THE CATHEDRAL
by T. S. Eliot
At one level T. S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral is a historical drama. It depicts a historical fact, an event in time. The play covers the period between the 2nd December, 1170, when Archbishop Thomas Becket returned to his see of Canterbury after seven years' exile, and the 29th December, 1170, when he was murdered by four knights, who believed that they were acting in the best interests of King Henry II. The background is a dispute as to the roles of Church and State and which should be subordinate to the other. There are a number of accounts of the event, including notably an eye witness account by one Edward Grim, which Eliot has clearly followed, so there is no doubt of the historical accuracy of his portrayal of the encounter.
But the play is far more than a historical drama. It is a play for all times and all time. It raises several issues for the modern audience to consider - the relationship of Church and State and of the material and spiritual worlds; the nature of martyrdom and sainthood; the power of faith and leadership and how this can transform people; the conflict between good and evil. The Knights, in their apologia after the murder, issue a clear challenge to the audience, backed by plausible reasoning, to consider these. This reasoning is to be contrasted with the drama and final affirmations of faith of the rest of the play.
The treatment of temptation and martyrdom is key to the understanding of the play. Thomas faces four temptations, the last of which appears to be the embodiment of his own thoughts on martyrdom and is the most difficult:
"The
last temptation is the greatest treason:
To do the right deed for the wrong reason."
If Thomas chooses martyrdom for his own glory, he is yielding to the ultimate sin of pride, the wish to be high in Heaven, which is said to have been the sin of Lucifer.
The solution he finds is reflected in his sermon on Christmas Day:
"A martyrdom is always the design of God, for his love of men, to warn them and to lead them, to bring them back to His ways. It is never the design of man; for the true martyr is he who has become the instrument of God, who has lost his will in the will of God, and who no longer desires anything for himself, not even the glory of being a martyr."
This is the key to understanding his actions.
A word about the Chorus of Women of Canterbury. They do not act as a Greek Chorus but have an important part to play, not least in setting the mood and showing the effect of events on the poor. At the outset they are fearful and leaderless, needing guidance. They grow under Thomas's leadership. In the chorus before his death they express the horror of the Void, the emptiness of Hell where no comfort of any kind can be found for the soul; and the chorus after his death expresses an abomination beyond imagination. Yet at the end, after a firm affirmation of faith from the Third Priest, they launch into an uplifting paean of praise.
John Willmer
Director
