ABSTRACT
1959 began with Arden and D’Arcy living in Peter Tavy in Devonshire, and Arden writing a new play, which was to be called Serjeant Musgrave’s Dance. George Devine had promised to stage it at the Royal Court. By the end of the summer the Royal Court was gearing up for the production of Serjeant Musgrave’s Dance. Lindsay Anderson was to direct, and the cast included some of Britain best young actors – Alan Dobey, Frank Finlay, Patsy Byrne and Ian Bannen. Serjeant Musgrave’s Dance is still worth pausing for because it demonstrates so clearly Arden’s conception of poetic drama in the later 1950s. He describes the play on its title page as ‘an un-historical parable’, that is, it is not ‘real’ history even though it is historical in its content.
