Battle of Angels

As in its later, and substantially re-written version (entitled Orpheus Descending) the play deals with the arrival of a virile young drifter, Val Xavier, in a sleepy, small town in rural Mississippi. Taking a job in a store his smouldering animal magnetism draws out the latent sexual passion in the love-starved store keeper, whilst her husband lies dying upstairs. A sense of inevitable tragedy grows and there is a denouement of overwhelming and chilling intensity.

Battle of Angels premiered in its three act version at the Circle Theatre in New York City in November 1974 under the direction of Marshall W. Mason. The original version premiered at the Wilbur Theatre in Boston, MA in December 1940 under the direction of Margaret Webster.