.jpg?w=1)
拍品專文
Stephen Spender was a member of Rupert Doone’s Group Theatre since 1933. Spender’s main contribution to the Group was a poetic drama, Trial of a Judge, which was completed in 1938. Trial of a Judge was published by Faber and performed by the Group in March 1938. The play is set in a European country, possibly Germany or Austria. The principal theme is, as Stephen explained it to be, ‘German Justice’ – the Fascist dismantling of democratic ‘separation of powers’ and an independent judiciary.
The play was put on for a week at the end of March, at the Unite Theatre Club, an anti-Fascist establishment, behind King’s Cross. The premises were a converted nonconformist chapel which displayed John Piper’s set – the first he had done for the Group.
Virginia Woolf and Eliot came to London as honoured invitees to see Trial of a Judge. Woolf said it was ‘a moving play: genuine; simple; sincere … I like [Stephen] always: his large sensitive sincerity better than the contorted nerve-drawn brilliancy of the others’ (J. Sutherland, Stephen Spender: A Literary Life, Oxford, 2004).
We are very grateful to Rev. Dr. Stephen Laird for his assistance in preparing the catalogue entries for the present lot and lots 28, 29, 31, 171, 173, and 175.
The play was put on for a week at the end of March, at the Unite Theatre Club, an anti-Fascist establishment, behind King’s Cross. The premises were a converted nonconformist chapel which displayed John Piper’s set – the first he had done for the Group.
Virginia Woolf and Eliot came to London as honoured invitees to see Trial of a Judge. Woolf said it was ‘a moving play: genuine; simple; sincere … I like [Stephen] always: his large sensitive sincerity better than the contorted nerve-drawn brilliancy of the others’ (J. Sutherland, Stephen Spender: A Literary Life, Oxford, 2004).
We are very grateful to Rev. Dr. Stephen Laird for his assistance in preparing the catalogue entries for the present lot and lots 28, 29, 31, 171, 173, and 175.