A parable play written and produced by Louis MacNeice
Music specially composed by Benjamin Britten
Conducted by Alan Rawsthorne
[Starring] Cyril Cusack

(BBC recording)
(New production of the programme broadcast on January 21, 1946)
(Mark Dignam is appearing with the Old Vic Theatre Company)

There are few lines in Shakespeare more haunting than 'Childe Roland to the dark tower came' - given to Edgar in King Lear without a context and without explanation. Browning was inspired by it to write one of his best-known poems, and this suggested to Louis MacNeice his radio play in verse. In this play Roland is the last of a family whose menfolk are doomed, one after the other, to set out on a quest from which there is no return.