Serjeant Musgrave's Dance

Set between 1860 and 1880, four deserters bring the body of a dead soldier back to his home town, a mining community in the grip of a coal strike and cut off by snow. Their leader, Serjeant Musgrave, plans to hold the town at gunpoint and confront its people with the realities of warfare. Arden''s play questions the military principle of "Obey or suffer" and the cruelty and futility of war.

Serjean...