Cecil Davies' The Adelphi Players: The Theatre of Persons represents a uniquely interesting contribution to our understanding of touring British theatre in the mid-twentieth-century, post-war period. This book will interest everyone - whether student, academic or general reader - who wants to know more about issues concerning the recent history of British theatre. In their values and aims, the Adelphi Players pre-empted many of the post-war developments that we associate with the non-commercial, fringe and community theatre movement. In Richard Heron Ward founder of the Adelphi-Players, we encounter a dramatist, novelist, essayist and poet who has been unusually neglected in terms of our appreciation of the English literature of the broad left in the 1930s, `40s and `50s.
The Adelphi Players has been edited by Peter Billingham, who has also provided an introduction placing Ward and the Adelphi players in the wider social, cultural and ideological context.