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THM/319 - Christopher Fry, playwright: papers
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Christopher Fry, playwright: papers

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This material is held at V & A Department of Theatre and Performance
Reference Number(s)GB 71 THM/319
Dates of Creation1902-2008
Name of Creator Christopher Fry
Language of Material English
Physical Description 493 files

Scope and Content

This collection contains Christopher Fry's scripts for stage plays, film, radio and television drama as well as his correspondence, notes and diaries and material relating to the performance of his plays.

Arrangement

This material has been arranged chronologically according to the order that works were first performed or broadcast, except correspondence, which has been arranged alphabetically by surname of correspondent. The archive is organised into the following series:

  • Scripts
  • Other writing
  • Diaries and notebooks
  • Music sheets
  • Programmes
  • Photographs
  • Press cuttings including reviews
  • Audio-visual material
  • Correspondence
  • Family and School papers

Administrative / Biographical History

Christopher Fry was born on 18 December 1907. He was originally named Arthur Hammond Harris and during his childhood adopted the surname Fry from his maternal grandmother. In his late twenties he became known as Christopher Fry. He went to Bedford Modern School, where he wrote his first play at eleven and his first verse drama at eighteen. He worked for a short period as an actor and teacher and then became director of a repertory theatre in Tunbridge Wells in 1934, directing the English premiere of George Bernard Shaw's Village Wooing. He also worked as a composer lyricist.

In 1938 Fry wrote The Boy with a Cart after being invited by a Sussex vicar to celebrate St Cuthman, who pushed his mother from Cornwall to Steyning in a wheelbarrow. In 1939 he wrote The Tower based on the history of Tewkesbury Abbey. Both these plays are said to be influenced by T.S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral. During the war he spent four years as a non-combatant in the Pioneer Corps as well as being the director of the Oxford Repertory Players in 1940. In 1946 A Phoenix Too Frequent was staged at the Mercury Theatre in London and featured Paul Scofield. It was based on the story by Petronius about a widow who is persuaded not to lock herself away in her husband's tomb. In 1946 he also wrote an early version of The Firstborn telling the story of the struggle between Moses and the Pharaoh in Egypt. He then wrote Thor with Angels about the spread of Christianity for the Canterbury Festival in 1948.

In 1946 Alec Clunes commissioned The Lady's Not For Burning for the Arts Theatre Club, which features a soldier who wants to be hanged and a suspected witch who does not want to be burned. First performed in 1948, it then had a long run in London's West End with John Gielgud, Pamela Brown, Richard Burton and Claire Bloom. Seen by some as an important return to verse drama, others including Kenneth Tynan saw it as backward looking. In 1950 it transferred to New York's Broadway with Burton. In 1950 Fry also wrote a translation of Jean Anouilh's L'Invitation au chateau as Ring Round the Moon for Peter Brook. He also wrote Venus Observed for Laurence Olivier, in which an astronomer asks his son to choose his own stepmother from three former mistresses. In 1950 he wrote A Sleep of Prisoners for the Festival of Britain in 1951, which featured four prisoners of war who recreate Old Testament stories in their dreams. In 1953 he wrote the screenplay for The Beggar's Opera directed by Peter Brook and with Olivier in the lead role. In 1954 he wrote The Dark is Light Enough, the third part of his seasonal plays, starring Edith Evans, set as the Hungarians rise up against Austrian rule in the 19th century. In 1955 his translations of Anouilh's L'alouette as The Lark and Giraudoux's La guerre de Troi n'aura pas lieu as Tiger at the Gates were both performed in London's West End.

In the late 1950s Fry went to Rome to help re-write the screenplay for Ben Hur. He also wrote the screenplay for Barabbas (1962) and for The Bible (1966). He continued writing plays, although his type of verse drama had fallen out of favour since the rise of realistic prose drama in the 1950s. In 1961 he wrote Curtmantle about the conflict between Henry II and Thomas Becket and in 1970, the fourth season play, A Yard of Sun about family reunions after a war. He also translated Giraudoux's Pour Lucrece as Duel of Angels in 1960 and Judith in 1962. In addition, he translated Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt in 1970 and Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac in 1975, both for the Chichester Festival Theatre. A Ringing of Bells was commissioned by his old school in 2000 and was put on at the National Theatre the following year.

In 1962 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and in 1999 The Lady's Not For Burning was voted as one of the hundred best plays of the twentieth century in a National Theatre poll. He died on 30 June 2005.

Conditions Governing Access

This archive is available for consultation in the V&A Department of Theatre & Performance's reading room, which is located at Blythe House, 23 Blythe Rd, Olympia, London, W14 0QX. The reading room is open Tuesday to Friday's between 10.15 am and 4.30 pm, access to it is by appointment only. To request an appointment please email tmenquiries@vam.ac.uk or telephone 020 7942 2698.

Additionally access to some of these files may be restricted. These are identified at file level.

Conditions Governing Use

Archive material may not be photocopied. Arrangements can be made to photograph material in the search room using non-flash photography.

Acquisition Information

Bequest of Christopher Fry, 2005.

Accruals

No further accruals to this collection are expected.

Other Finding Aid

An item level list describing in more detail most of the individual letters in THM/319/9 is available as a Word document. This list can be found in the first box of correspondence. Please ask for details.

Related Material

See also Theatre & Performance Core Collections: material relating to Christopher Fry may be found in several collections, including his biographical file, relevant production files, and photographs. Please ask for more details.

Separated Material

Material received with the archive which has been transferred to other collections:

  • Jerome K Jerome, Stage-Land: Curious Manners and Customs of its Inhabitants , published by Chatto & Windus in 1889.
  • Typescripts for Temple Folly and Joanna Laughs, both by Bridget Boland.
  • Playbills for Tumbridge Wells Theatre, 1823, 1824 and 1829.
  • Single sheet broadside announcing the 'Total Destruction of Drury Lane Theatre' in 1809.
  • Three letters from Sarah Siddons, one dated 1809.

Subjects

Theater - Great Britain - History - 20th Century
Dramatists

Personal Names

Fry, Christopher. ( 1907-2005)

Cataloguing Info

TitleChristopher Fry, playwright: papers
Sub-titleCatalogue of records in the Victoria & Albert Museum: Department of Theatre and Performance
AuthorCatalogued by Vaila Holbourn
Revisions

Scripts

Reference Number(s)GB 71 THM/319/1
Dates of Creation1922-2000
Physical Description 45 files

Scope and Content

Typescripts for stage plays, film, television and radio broadcasts, often in multiple versions with annotations and revisions.

Script for All the Best

Reference Number(s)GB 71 THM/319/1/1
Dates of Creation1922
Physical Description 1 folder

Scope and Content

Handwritten play script.

Script for The Cathedral

Reference Number(s)GB 71 THM/319/1/2
Dates of Creation1923
Physical Description 1 folder

Scope and Content

Handwritten play script.

Script for The Invisible Spirit

Reference Number(s)GB 71 THM/319/1/3
Dates of Creation1923
Physical Description 1 folder

Scope and Content

Handwritten play script.

Script for Aucassin

Reference Number(s)GB 71 THM/319/1/4
Dates of Creation1924
Physical Description 1 folder

Scope and Content

Typed play script.

Script for The Tragedy of a Retired Admiral

Reference Number(s)GB 71 THM/319/1/5
Dates of Creation1928
Physical Description 1 folder

Scope and Content

Typed play script.

Script for Cinderella

Reference Number(s)GB 71 THM/319/1/6
Dates of Creation1934
Physical Description 1 folder

Scope and Content

Printed booklet of play script, with 'Christopher Fry' written on cover.

Script for The Sleeping Beauty

Reference Number(s)GB 71 THM/319/1/7
Dates of Creation1934
Physical Description 1 folder

Scope and Content

Printed booklet of play script, with 'Ian L Serraillier' written on cover. Handwritten annotations, possibly by Ian L Serraillier.

Script for The Open Door

Reference Number(s)GB 71 THM/319/1/8
Dates of Creation1936
Physical Description 1 folder

Scope and Content

Printed book of play script. Handwritten annotations, probably by Christopher Fry.

Script for The Seven Conversations

Reference Number(s)GB 71 THM/319/1/9
Dates of Creation1936[?]
Physical Description 1 folder

Scope and Content

Typed play script. Handwritten annotations by Christopher Fry.

Script for Escapade

Reference Number(s)GB 71 THM/319/1/10
Dates of Creation1930s
Physical Description 1 folder

Scope and Content

Typed play script.

Scripts for Siege

Reference Number(s)GB 71 THM/319/1/11
Dates of Creation1937
Physical Description 2 folders

Scope and Content

Typed play scripts.

Scripts for The Boy with a Cart

Reference Number(s)GB 71 THM/319/1/12
Dates of Creation1938
Physical Description 1 folder

Scope and Content

Typed play script, photocopy of printed book and revisions. First performed on stage in Sussex in 1938.

Scripts for The Tall Hill

Reference Number(s)GB 71 THM/319/1/13
Dates of Creation1939-1996
Physical Description 2 folders

Scope and Content

Typed radio scripts. Scripts from 1939 with letter from 1996.

Script for Seven at One Stroke

Reference Number(s)GB 71 THM/319/1/14
Dates of Creation1939
Physical Description 1 folder

Scope and Content

Typed play script.

Script for Elba to Waterloo

Reference Number(s)GB 71 THM/319/1/15
Dates of Creationca. 1930s
Physical Description 1 folder

Scope and Content

Typed play script. Handwritten annotations by Christopher Fry.

Scripts for The Firstborn

Reference Number(s)GB 71 THM/319/1/16
Dates of Creation1939-1951
Physical Description 3 folders

Scope and Content

Typed play scripts and marked up published books. Typescripts handwritten annotations by Christopher Fry and T. S. Eliot. Also translation of script into French by Philippe de Rothschild. Broadcast by the BBC in 1947 and first performed on stage in 1948 at the Edinburgh Festival.

Scripts for A Phoenix Too Frequent

Reference Number(s)GB 71 THM/319/1/17
Dates of Creation1946-1976
Physical Description 6 folders

Scope and Content

Typed play scripts, prompt script, radio scripts, published books and revisions. Handwritten annotations by Christopher Fry. First performed on stage in 1946 at the Mercury Theatre, London.

Scripts for The Lady's Not for Burning

Reference Number(s)GB 71 THM/319/1/18
Dates of Creation1949-1993
Physical Description 18 folders

Scope and Content

Handwritten and typed play scripts, television script, radio script and revisions. Handwritten annotations by Christopher Fry. First performed on stage in 1946 at the Arts Theatre, London.

Scripts for Thor with Angels

Reference Number(s)GB 71 THM/319/1/19
Dates of Creation1948
Physical Description 2 folders

Scope and Content

Typed play script and prompt script. First performed on stage as part of the Canterbury Festival.

Script for Rhineland Journey

Reference Number(s)GB 71 THM/319/1/20
Dates of Creation1948
Physical Description 1 folder

Scope and Content

Typed radio script.

Script for Venus Observed

Reference Number(s)GB 71 THM/319/1/21
Dates of Creation1949-1991
Physical Description 9 folders

Scope and Content

Typed play scripts, radio scripts and revisions. Handwritten annotations by Christopher Fry. Also printed book of Japanese translation of script. First performed on stage in 1950 at the St James Theatre, London.

Script for Ring Round the Moon based on L'Invitation au Chateau by Jean Anouilh

Reference Number(s)GB 71 THM/319/1/22
Dates of Creation1950
Physical Description 1 folder

Scope and Content

Typed play script and revisions. First performed on stage in 1950 at the Globe Theatre, London.

Script for The Canary based on Le Canari by Georges Neveux

Reference Number(s)GB 71 THM/319/1/23
Dates of Creation1942-1950
Physical Description 1 folder

Scope and Content

Typed play script in French by Georges Neveux stamped with date 1942 plus Christopher Fry's adaptation. Adapted by Christopher Fry for the BBC in 1950.

Scripts for A Sleep of Prisoners

Reference Number(s)GB 71 THM/319/1/24
Dates of Creation1951-1977
Physical Description 6 folders

Scope and Content

Typed play scripts, prompt script, radio scripts, published book and revisions. Handwritten annotations by Christopher Fry. First performed on stage in 1951.

Script for The Beggars' Opera originally by John Gay

Reference Number(s)GB 71 THM/319/1/25
Dates of Creation1952
Physical Description 1 folder

Scope and Content

Typed final film script.

Script for Religion and Philosophy: A Play for a Church

Reference Number(s)GB 71 THM/319/1/26
Dates of Creation1953
Physical Description 1 folder

Scope and Content

Typed radio script.

Scripts for The Dark is Light Enough

Reference Number(s)GB 71 THM/319/1/27
Dates of Creation1954-1974
Physical Description 12 folders

Scope and Content

Typed play scripts, prompt script, radio scripts, published book and revisions. Handwritten annotations by Christopher Fry and press cuttings in book. First performed on stage in 1954 at the Aldwych Theatre, London.

Scripts for The Lark based on L'Alouette by Jean Anouilh

Reference Number(s)GB 71 THM/319/1/28
Dates of Creation1955
Physical Description 2 folders

Scope and Content

Typed play scripts. Handwritten annotations by Christopher Fry. First performed on stage in 1955 at the Lyric Theatre, London.

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