Description

M14 F2. Various simple settings

Late on 20th October, 1953, Sir John Gielgud, then at the zenith of his theatrical career, was arrested in a Chelsea public lavatory. He pleaded guilty the next day to the charge of persistently importuning male persons for immoral purposes. In the prim, homophobic Britain of the 1950s, Gielgud’s offence attracted vicious criticism from public and press alike and threatened to terminate his career. A few weeks later, however, when Gielgud opened in London in a new play, something extraordinary happened.

Nicholas de Jongh’s Plague Over England is not just a dramatized account of a scandal. It relates Gielgud’s emergency to the country’s political mood and depicts a nation in the grip of a gay witch-hunt.

Detective Chief Inspector Bellinger: about 36. Rayner, Lord Goddard: Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales. Mr Justice Percival Lightbourne: a High Court judge. Daniel Arlington: 40ish; American. Police Constable Terry Fordham: early - mid 20s. Matthew Barnsbury: civil servant. Dame Sybil Thorndike: actress. Sir John Gielgud: 49, later 71. Dr Ambrose Quentin. Gregory Lightbourne: 19, later 41. Douglas Witherby. Vera Dromgoole. Brian Mandeville. Chiltern Moncrieffe, theatre critic. Sir David Maxwell Fyfe. Bert. Binkie Beaumont. Fred.

Linked Authors