The Prisoner

Bridget Boland's play has been opened out slightly to emphasise a context of social unrest in an unspecified totalitarian (Eastern bloc?) state, but as with other works about inquisition, the suspect's ordeal becomes the audience's. Glenville stands back from time to time so that we can really appreciate the performances of Guinness, as a Cardinal subjected to torture for his beliefs, and Hawkins as his inquisitor; but in boxing parlance, he might have broken up more of the clinches.