Three Plays

by Ian Dallas

Herein gathered together are three extraordinary plays written by Ian Dallas, an alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and a published author of various seminal texts on political theory and power studies, philosophical studies and novels.
Dr. Dallas’s first play ‘A Masque of Summer’, which appears in his ‘Collected Works’, was presented at the Citizens’ Theatre in Glasgow by stage director Peter Potter. The critical if not public acclaim of this first play led to the second, ‘The Face of Love’, in 1955. The play was presented at the Pitlochry Festival Theatre arranged by James Bridie’s widow, the wise Rona Mayor, and the beautiful Majorie Linklater, and was a tremendous success. Dr. Dallas’s play premiered a year later in London at the Vanburgh Theatre, directed by John Fernald starring Albert Finney as Troilus, and later adapted to television by Alvin Rakoff featuring Mary Morris and Peter Cushing.
BBC television presented Dr. Dallas’s fourth play ‘Statue of David’, with Jill Bennett as Barbara, Paul Rogers as David and Bonar Colleano as Guy.
The third play printed here, ‘Oedipus and Dionysus’, has not as yet been performed, although a Catalan translation is being used as an opera libretto and is dedicated to Ernst Jünger.

151 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 1, 2013

About the author

The modern writer submits his literary work to the critics. My desire is to submit my work to those fellow travellers who seek for maps to make sense of their life’s journey. Ronald Laing, the psychiatrist, once said to me, ‘The only reason I go on psycho-analysing my patients, is in the hope that just one of them in his narration will reveal to me something that will help to make sense of my own life.’

I look back on my works as being, as it were, way-marks on a journey, one which when taken had seemed not only without destination, but in itself nothing but a troubled and turbulent wandering. All I took with me through what seemed the disorder of my life was a satchel with two connected compartments. One was the formal education and culture as a child of my time. The other hidden pocket contained another version of events, both historical and familial, which gave glimmerings of significance that seemed to indicate that in all the dreadful business of living and the great wasted tracts of enjoyment, that there was meaning to be found and that illumination would one day emblazon both the road and the landscape.