OVERVIEW

• Playwright

  Louis MacNeice 

• Setting

  The bar in a small passenger steamer.

• Synopsis

  Scientist Thomas Carstairs and his wife take a cruise as a rest cure. Amongst passengers who come on board at a port is one Roger Haffer, a high-ranking colleague of Carstairs who has defected behind the Iron Curtain, and who was a former lover of his wife. This leaves Carstairs with a dilemma: to expose him to security, or to keep Haffer's secret, as his wife still loves him. With the announcement that war has broken out, the question of whether Carstairs betrays his friend or his country assumes a very urgent importance.

• Play Type

  Plays General
  

  Number Of Acts

  Full-Length

Cast size

• Male

  5

• Female

  2

• Total

  7

Original Production

• Date of First Production

  23 March 1957

• Producer

  Produced by Ulster Group Theatre

• Original Venue

  Group Theatre
  

Source Of Information

Information for this entry was taken from press cuttings, and from the Theatre and Performing Arts Archive of the Linen Hall Library, Belfast.