Robert Donat (1) (1905–1958)

Can be staged or read as a closet drama. The chorus is "of Women", the players are three male cathedral priests, a messenger, Thomas Becket, four Tempters/Knights, and attendants. Set in the Hall of the Archbishop, Canterbury, December 2d, 1170.

The chorus of women introduce themselves--"we are not ignorant women"-- and set the stage with particulars of the Archbishop's return to Canterbury, and ending with the question "Shall the Son of Man be born again in the litter of scorn? For us, the poor, there is no action, But only to wait and to witness."

The play exposes the consequences--fear and chaos of entire peoples [20]--caused by the idiocy of tyrant Kings who engage in endless "intrigue, combinations", devouring their own people. [14]

Becket is "tempted" by four Temptors: First, by friendships and kissing pleasures, then by power, and then by rough English unity against a tyrant King. Finally, by Mystery--the appeal of "eternal grandeur" as a martyr for the Church.

The "Interlude" has the Archbishop preach a Christmas Sermon. The message highlights the cruel combination of celebration and grief engaged in the feast of celebration of the Savior's birth, who is at once mourned.

The Priests express their devotion with ineffective (cowardly) tactical evasions--flight, perhaps back to France. The Knights kill Becket. And then "having completed the murder", they advance center stage and address the audience. They beg the audience to hear "the merits of this extremely complex problem" and proceed to make brilliant arguments justifying their action--stone cold murder!

The Priests continue to make lame/ineffective invocations, and the Chorus returns to recite a great hymn to pantheism--"We praise Thee, O God, for Thy glory displayed in all the creatures of the earth..."!

Of course, the dramatic but subtle takeaway may be the exposure of the fact that the entire world is foul. Even among the most conscious creatures, cruelties abound. The outcomes never, ever, never never never result in justice. "Our hearts are torn" even as they beat with life, and even the air and the stones of the world "cannot be cleaned or redeemed". [78]

Does Faith provide space for Hope in this journey?… (altro)