''The Burning Glass'' is a 1954 dramatic play by Charles Morgan.
Plot
''The Burning Glass'' tells the story of Christopher Terriford, a British scientist who discovers a new method of capturing solar energy. This "burning glass" can greatly benefit mankind, but it can also be used to wipe out distant targets with devastating flame, so like the atomic bomb it holds the potential to destroy mankind. Because of this, Terriford won't give his discovery to the British Government, instead depositing half the formula in a bank and the other half in his wife's memory.
Terriford and the British Prime Minister debate at the intersection of morality, patriotism, conscience, and necessity. Terriford – who wishes he could forget his discovery, but can't – tells the Prime Minister that the time has come for science to withhold knowledge as "we haven't developed at the same time our spiritual or our political qualities... We are like a monstrous giant... There can be a blasphemy of applied science. We have reached that point."
Then dark forces – perhaps Russian agents, but identified only as "The Enemy" – kidnap Terriford. But Terriford refuses to talk and is released. Meanwhile, his wife and associate have undertaken to recreate the burning glass in his absence. His associate, remorseful for having played an inadvertent part in provoking Terriford's kidnapping, fearful of being kidnapped next (and that he is too weak to guard the secret he now knows), and in love with Terriford's wife, commits suicide.
Productions
West End
''The Burning Glass'' opened at the
Apollo Theatre
The Apollo Theatre is a Grade II listed West End theatre, on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster, in central London.
in London's West End on 18 February 1954 and was a success. The production was directed by Michael Macowan with a cast including Michael Goodliffe, Dorothy Green, Faith Brook,
Michael Gough
Francis Michael Gough ( ; 23 November 1916 – 17 March 2011) was a British character actor who made more than 150 film and television appearances. He is known for his roles in the Hammer Horror Films from 1958, with his first role as Sir Arthu ...
Basil Dignam
Basil Dignam (24 October 1905 – 31 January 1979) was an English character actor.
Basil Dignam was born in Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire. Before the acting, he tried many jobs, from a company clerk to a journalist. He acted on film and ...
, and
Laurence Naismith
Laurence Naismith (born Lawrence Johnson; 14 December 1908 – 5 June 1992) was an English actor. He made numerous film and television appearances, including starring roles in the musical films '' Scrooge'' (1970) and the children's ghost fil ...
.
Ludovic Kennedy
Sir Ludovic Henry Coverley Kennedy (3 November 191918 October 2009) was a Scottish journalist, broadcaster, humanist and author best known for re-examining cases such as the Lindbergh kidnapping and the murder convictions of Timothy Evans an ...
wrote of the play "Charles Morgan has written the play, not only of the year, but of the decade in which we live".
Audrey Williamson
Audrey Doreen Swayne Williamson (''later Mitchell'') (28 September 1926 – 29 April 2010)s Terriford's associategave a performance that all but dominated the play. Yet he is not the protagonist, and he should not so dominate. That is the play's weakness, not the actor's. But it is a weakness."Anthony Hartley of ''
The Spectator
''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world.
It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...
'' was archly dismissive of the play's denouement, in which Terriford concedes to the British Government the right to use the burning glass for war in event of uttermost need – "Why not othe Russians?... errifordpresupposes that he knows who is bad and who is good in this complicated world... The presupposition is social: the one took your mother out to dances n the play, the Prime Minister and Terriford's mother had dated the other was educated half in Buda and half in Pest. To whom would you give the secret of the burning glass, chum?... all the characters except he enemy agentHardlip devote themselves to proclaiming the unspoken assumptions of the English upper classes.... What purports to be a play of ideas conveys a country-house ethic of the necessity for having the right chaps in the right places... This solution solves nothing, excites no question, stimulates no reaction. It is not even dramatic. This is not what the theatre is for."
Broadway
After tryouts at the New Parsons Theatre in Hartford, Connecticut,'' The Burning Glass'' opened on
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
at the
Longacre Theatre
The Longacre Theatre is a Broadway theater at 220 West 48th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States. Opened in 1913, it was designed by Henry B. Herts and was named for Longacre Square, now known a ...
on 4 March 1954. Players included
Scott Forbes
Scott may refer to:
Places Canada
* Scott, Quebec, municipality in the Nouvelle-Beauce regional municipality in Quebec
* Scott, Saskatchewan, a town in the Rural Municipality of Tramping Lake No. 380
* Rural Municipality of Scott No. 98, Saskat ...
(as Christopher Terriford), Walter Matthau (as Terriford's associate),
Isobel Elsom
Isobel Elsom (born Isabelle Reed; 16 March 1893 – 12 January 1981) was an English film, theatre, and television actress. She was often cast as aristocrats or upper-class women.
Early years
Born in Chesterton, Cambridge, Elsom attend ...
(as Terriford's wife),
Cedric Hardwicke
Sir Cedric Webster Hardwicke (19 February 1893 – 6 August 1964) was an English stage and film actor whose career spanned nearly 50 years. His theatre work included notable performances in productions of the plays of Shakespeare and Shaw, and ...
, and Maria Riva. According to Thomas Hischak, the Broadway production was "dismissed as claptrap" and it was not a success, closing after 28 performances on 27 March 1954.
Revivals
Revivals have included a 1962 production at the Bromley Little Theatre outside London.