Murder in the Cathedral

By TS Eliot, rehearsed reading, Edinburgh Fringe 2024, with Richard Holloway as Becket.

This was the second time I’ve directed a rehearsed reading of this play, written and first performed in 1935, and its themes are even more relevant today. Power (abuse), responsibility (abnegation), the inexorability of time and the way we as humans can tie ourselves up in knots and then create plausible reasons for our actions and convince ourselves that they are just are some that come to mind. The dilemma for both the spiritually aware and non-aware is the same – how do we live with the consequences of our actions?

Richard is a great Becket, for many reasons – not least his commanding and beautiful voice. Susan Chynoweth was chilling as a tempter, the knights’ justification of their actions could have come straight out of a current political manifesto and was admirably delivered by Callum Robertson and the others. Lizz Spence as the last tempter really nailed it.