Christopher Fry

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Lore & Background

Christopher Fry was born as Arthur Hammond Harris in Bristol, the son of Charles John Harris, a master builder who retired early to work full-time as a licensed Lay Reader in the Church of England, and his wife Emma Marguerite Fry Hammond Harris. While still young, he took his mother's maiden name because, on very tenuous grounds, he believed her to be related to the 19th-century Quaker prison reformer Elizabeth Fry. He adopted Elizabeth Fry's faith, and became a Quaker. After attending Bedford Modern School, where he wrote amateur plays, 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. Fry gave up his school career in 1932 to found the Tunbridge Wells Repertory Players, which he ran for three years, directing and starring in the English premiere of George Bernard Shaw's A Village Wooing in 1934. As a curtain-raiser, he put on a revised version of a show he wrote when he was a schoolboy called The Peregrines. His play about Thomas John Barnardo toured in a fund-raising amateur production in 1935 and 1936, including Deborah Kerr in its cast. His professional career began to take off in 1938, when he was commissioned by the vicar of Steyning, West Sussex, to write a play celebrating the local saint, Cuthman of Steyning. This became The Boy With A Cart, which would be put on professionally in 1950 at the Lyric, Hammersmith, with John Gielgud directing and the young Richard Burton in his first starring role. 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. In 1939 Fry also became artistic director of Oxford Playhouse. A pacifist, he was a conscientious objector during World War II, and served in the Non-Combatant Corps; for part of the time he cleaned London's sewers. After the War, he wrote a comedy, A Phoenix Too Frequent, 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 Firstborn was produced at the Oxford Playhouse in 1948, with two songs specially written for the play by Leonard Bernstein. In 1948, Fry wrote a commission for the Canterbury Festival, Thor, With Angels. He 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.

Reader's Guide

Christopher Fry's significance lies in his revival of poetic drama in the mid-20th century, particularly through his verse drama The Lady's Not for Burning (1948), which became the most performed of all his plays and made him a major force in theatre in the 1940s and 1950s. His work, often cited as influenced by T. S. Eliot, marked a revival in popularity for poetic drama. Fry also wrote a quartet of 'seasonal' plays: the springtime The Lady's Not For Burning, the autumnal Venus Observed (produced at the St James's Theatre by Laurence Olivier in 1950), the winter play The Dark is Light Enough (starring Katharine Cornell and Edith Evans in 1954, with incidental music by Leonard Bernstein), and the summer play A Yard Of Sun (presented at the Nottingham Playhouse in 1970). Although his poetic style began to fall out of fashion with the advent of the Angry Young Men of British theatre in the mid-1950s, he continued to write plays and work for cinema, including uncredited work on Ben-Hur (1959) and scripts for Barabbas (1961) and The Bible: In the Beginning... (1966). His last play, A Ringing Of Bells, was commissioned by his old school, Bedford Modern School, and performed there in 2000; a new production was performed at the National Theatre the following year. In commemoration of his achievements, Bedford Modern School named the new Junior School hall after him. He lived until 2005, dying from natural causes in Chichester.

Did You Know?

• Fry was born Arthur Hammond Harris but took his mother's maiden name because he believed, on very tenuous grounds, she was related to Quaker prison reformer Elizabeth Fry.
• During World War II, Fry served as a conscientious objector in the Non-Combatant Corps and for part of the time cleaned London's sewers.
• His play The Lady's Not for Burning inspired Margaret Thatcher's famous line 'You turn if you want to — the lady's not for turning' at the 1980 Conservative Party conference.
• Fry wrote uncredited work on the screenplay for the 1959 film Ben-Hur.
• His last play, A Ringing Of Bells, was commissioned by his old school, Bedford Modern School, and performed there in 2000.