Thunder Rock (1939)- Jeb (1946)- Shadow of Heroes (1958)

This dramatic trio by one of the most challenging minds at work today carries a single message: that success or failure in the theater of ideas lies with its audience and their time-spirit. As Mr. Ardrey so ruefully observes in his autobiographical preface to these three plays written by him and variously produced in New York and London: "You must take your chances... Your minority report will be judged at some future time, perhaps when you are no longer around." Happily we have been given a second chance to savor these prime examples of Theatre engage while their author is still a vigorous force on the literary scene. Thunder Rock, the first play included in this volume, was produced by the Group Theatre in 1939--later in England, where its fantasy of one man's retreat from isolation became a clarion call to Londoners during the blitz. Jeb, opening on Broadway just after the war, considered the plight of a negro GI returned to a hostile world. Its brief run confirmed the fact that civil rights was too remote a subject for popular sentiment at that time. The final play, Shadow of Heroes, dealt with the Hungarian revolt against Communist rule. But neither its 1958 London production with a star-laden cast, not the New York version three years later, caught on fire. The white heat of emotion for Hungary had died. So there they are-- a mixed bag: one staged at the right moment, the second too early, the third too late, but all of them vital cries to both heart and intellect.