Rada: A Drama of War in One Act — Context and Discussion

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Authors: Noyes, Alfred, 1880-1958 Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2004 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: War -- Drama Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 6,680

Reading time 30 min

Text sections 1

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Source: Project Gutenberg record #12220

Alfred Noyes's one-act play uses stark dialogue and a Christmas Eve setting in a Balkan village to contrast the brutality of war with fragile symbols of faith and humanity, culminating in a chilling juxtaposition of a gramophone carol and offstage violence.

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File: pg12220

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That was a secret, Subka, a great secret.

SUBKA I thought, perhaps, you were getting the Christmas tree ready. Can't we? Father won't mind.

NANKO [_Putting the Christmas tree out from the corner._] Ah, here it is. Now that's a good idea. It's Christmas Eve. We'll get it ready.

ARRAM Here, put it on the table.

NANKO What shall we hang on it?

MICHAEL What do you think Of that, now? [_He hangs a revolver on the tree._]

SUBKA [_Clapping her hands._] O! O! What a great big pistol! That'll be Father's present! And now what else? What else?

ARRAM Well, Subka, what do you say to a ring? How prettily it hangs upon the bough! See, Subka!

SUBKA Why, it's just like Father's ring!

ARRAM [_Striking a light._] And now we'll light the candles.

NANKO [_Clapping his hands and dancing._] Yes that's right! Light all the little candles on the tree! O, doesn't the pistol shine, doesn't the ring Glitter!

SUBKA But O, it _is_ like Father's ring. He had a little piece of Mother's hair Plaited inside it, just like that. It _is_ My father's ring!

RADA No. There are many others Just like it, Subka,--hundreds, hundreds of others.

MICHAEL And now, what's in that package over there?

SUBKA The gramophone! O, that's the gramophone! That's Father's Christmas present to us all.

NANKO O, what a wonderful man the doctor was. Nobody else, in these parts, would have thought Of buying a gramophone. Let's open it!

SUBKA Yes! Yes! And we'll give Father a surprise. It shall be playing a tune when he comes in.

[ARRAM _opens the package_. NANKO _capers round, rubbing his hands._]

NANKO O, this will be a merry Christmas Eve. There now--just see how this kind gentleman Has opened the package for us. Doesn't it show The value of training, military training? That's what we want. It benefits the health. Sets a man up. Look at old Peter's legs, He's a disgrace to the nation, a disgrace! Nobody shoots him, either. So he spoils Everything; for you know, you must admit, Subka, that war means natural selection, Survival of the fittest, don't you see? For instance, _I_ survive, and _you_ survive; Don't we? So Peter shouldn't spoil it all. They say that all the tall young men in France Were killed in the Napoleonic wars, So that most Frenchmen at the present day Are short and fat. Isn't that funny, Subka? [_She laughs._] Which shows us that tall men are not required To-day. So nobody knows. Perhaps thin legs Like Peter's may be useful after all In aeroplanes or something. Every ounce Makes a great difference there. Nobody knows. It's natural selection, after all. Survival of the fittest! Don't you see? Ah, now the gramophone's ready. Make it play "Proud Nikephor Determined!"

MICHAEL [_Taking out a record._] Why, look here! Here is the tune for Christmas Eve.

ARRAM [_While he speaks he looks to outer door, and draws a curtain over the window._] Don't do it! Don't start it playing if you want to keep This Christmas party to ourselves, my boy. The men are mad with drink and--other things. Look here, Michael, what are we going to do About this youngster, eh?

MICHAEL Better keep quiet Till morning. When the men have slept it off They'll stand a better chance of slipping away.

NANKO O, what a pity, Subka! I did think That we should have some music. Well--I know! Tell us the Christmas piece you learned in school. That's right! Stand there! No! Stand up on the bench. Your mother tells me that you won the prize For learning it so beautifully, Subka. That's right. These good kind gentlemen shall hear Your Christmas piece.

SUBKA It's about the first Christmas. [_Her hands behind her as if in school, she obeys him._] She laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them, "Fear not: for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

And this shall be a sign unto you: ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger."

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."

Continue Reading →

Alfred Noyes's Rada: A Drama of War in One Act opens with a stage direction that immediately establishes a world of violent intrusion: a guest-chamber in a Balkan village doctor's home, taken over by enemy soldiers on Christmas Eve. The room's domestic details—the eikonostasis with its Madonna, the firelight, the rows of porcelain plates—are set against the coarse language of the soldiers, Arram and Michael, who drink at the table while Rada weeps. Noyes builds tension through the contrast between the sacred and the profane, the intimate and the invasive.

Diction as a Weapon

The soldiers' speech is deliberately coarse and dismissive. Arram tells Rada she should “think yourself damned lucky to be alive,” reducing her grief to an inconvenience. Michael's remark that war “can't be all cakes and cream” is a grotesque understatement that reveals their emotional detachment. Nanko, the half-witted schoolmaster, parrots the phrase “survival of the fittest” with a chilling literalness, turning a scientific concept into a justification for atrocity. Noyes uses these verbal tics to show how language can be twisted to normalize violence.

The Gramophone and the Sacred

The gramophone record, labeled “A Christmas Carol / Sung by the monks of St. Peter's monastery / At midnight mass, on Christmas Eve —ADESTE, FIDELES!”, becomes a central symbol. Nanko accidentally starts it, and the monks' chorus drowns out the distant artillery. The juxtaposition is stark: a mechanical reproduction of sacred music plays over a scene of horror. Noyes does not comment on this irony; he lets the stage directions and Nanko's oblivious dialogue—"These plums are excellent"—carry the weight. The carol's Latin title, meaning "O come, all ye faithful," underscores the absence of faith in the room.

Offstage Violence and Onstage Indifference

The play's most violent action—Rada's suicide and the shooting of her daughter—occurs offstage, heard only as two revolver shots. The soldiers' reaction is immediate self-interest: they flee at a bugle call, leaving Nanko alone. He notices “Something red again. Trickling under the door? Blood, I suppose,” but his primary concern is the gramophone and the plums. Noyes's choice to keep the violence unseen forces the audience to imagine it, while the characters' indifference amplifies the horror. The final image of Nanko dipping his finger in blood and staring with horror as the carol plays is the play's only moment of recognition.

Structure and the Christmas Eve Setting

The play is a single act, compressed into a continuous scene. The Christmas Eve setting is not merely atmospheric; it is a structural device that heightens the contrast between expectation and reality. The eikonostasis with its ever-burning lamp, the firelight, and the mention of midnight mass create a framework of religious ritual that the soldiers' behavior systematically violates. Noyes uses the setting to ask what remains of sacred tradition when war strips away all pretense. The final stage direction—the gramophone drowning out the artillery—leaves the audience with an unresolved dissonance between the carol's promise of peace and the blood on the floor.

Readers should attend to Noyes's use of offstage action and the gramophone as a mechanical chorus. The play does not moralize; it presents a situation and lets the details speak. Pay particular attention to Nanko's dialogue, which often carries the play's thematic weight in its apparent nonsense. The brevity of the work—a single act of about 6,700 words—makes it a concentrated study in dramatic irony and the limits of empathy under duress.

Sometimes a play lingers because of what it doesn't show, like that gramophone carol against the darkness in Noyes’s Rada. It made me recall another script, quieter in its own way, where faith and duty fray at the edges under pressure. There’s a certain ache in both, a wondering about what we carry through war. I found that same haunting quality in Cromwell: A Drama, in Five Acts — A Closer Reading, particularly in its spare, human moments.