THE STORY: In the words of George Jean Nathan, the play “deals with the Catholic Church in Ireland. Its theme lies in the ramifications of faith as practiced by the Church’s various constituents…faith that, for all its sincerity, has drifted from its deepest moorings, and the manner in which a true, steadfast, innocent, and unselfish believer, a young girl, brings the contentious others, through the uncorrupted purity and simplicity of her own faith, back to first principles. And the role of the young girl, a little caretaker in the house of the canon, though built out of materials that in cruder hands would quickly betray their spirit and such a restrained gentility of writing ink that, if it is cast at all appropriately, it can hardly fail to dig into an audience’s emotions. The straw out of which Carroll has fabricated his bricks and built his play is of a superior quality, and his dramatic structure, as a consequence, mounts aloft with eloquence and power."
Winner of the 1938 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Foreign Play.
