Power and the Glory, the (Greene) - Dennis Cannan

Tragedy

Denis Cannan and Pierre Bost, adapted from Graham Greene.

Characters: 28 male, 9female, extras

Unit set, frags., travellers.

In the revolutionary days of Mexico a priest decides to stay with his people in disguise rather than escape. It is little consolation, however. For wherever the priest goes with the Mass and the Sacraments, the police are sure to follow executing those who harbored him. Though he is a humanly weak priest, with a past of many sins, he has moments of strength. He steals a bottle of wine from a drunken official, and ends in prison. Released, he travels to another province where he is given food and clothes, and the people make religious processions. At ease again, he slips back into his old pleasures. At the moment of his escape, however, he chooses to go instead to a dying man. Here he is ambushed, and executed. "A wonderful play. . . . Straight into the heart of a sublime theme."-N. Y. Times.