(Exit Officer. General P. lights a cigarette.
Enter Anna. She does not bow.)

(The inner door opens, and Mlle. ---- enters. She fixes P. with a haughty stare. P. bows and smiles and makes himself very polite. Mlle. ----, still watching him, takes her fiddle and plays. As she plays the passions of P. and Anna relax; they are lost in the beauty of the music. Before the end P., his face in his hands, is sobbing upon the table. Anna remains against the door, her expression enraptured. Mlle. ---- ends, and again fixes her glance on P., this time inquiringly.)

(He would take her hand; she withdraws it, changes her mind, and lets him kiss it. He goes out, as Anna throws herself, weeping, into her saviour's arms.)

Jephthah: A Tragedy -- A substantial single-scene verse drama in the classical
   Greek manner, set in biblical Israel, this work was completed at Cambridge
   in November 1898. First printed anonymously in the author's private
   edition of fifty-two copies only, "by a gentleman of the University of
    Cambridge" (London: 1899), it was then preserved in Collected Works
   I (1905).

The Poem: A Little Drama in Four Scenes -- A brief prose play set in modern
   London, concerning the family squabbles and independence of an artistic
   young gentleman named Percy Brandon. Crowley noted that "it may be
   read as a delicate idyll or a screaming parody, according to the nature and
   mood of the reader." First printed separately in the author's private edition
   of ten copies only (London: 1898), and then preserved in Collected Works
   I (1905).

The Fatal Force -- A single scene in verse, written in the spring of 1899,
   showing "the effect of shattering all the solid basis of a young man's mind."
   A degenerate young king of Egypt challenges his cruel mother the queen,
   and looses faith in his own divinity. This play was published only in
   Collected Works I (1905).

The Mother's Tragedy -- A companion-piece to The Fatal Force, also written
   in early 1899, and likewise a single scene in verse. Crowley described
   his style at this point as "influenced by Ibsen, with a touch of Bulwer
   Lytton." Again the focus is a son's opposition to his mother, but here the
   setting is modern, and the mother tragically "good." The author notes that
   "a good mother is an affliction against which none but the strongest may
    strive. It is fortunately rare." The play was originally printed in the
    author's miscellany volume for private distribution, The Mother's
   Tragedy and Other Poems (London: 1901), and then included in
   Collected Works I (1905).

Tannhauser: A Story of All Time -- Written in Mexico City in early 1900 in
   sixty-seven continuous hours on the inspiration of "a delirium whose
   images assumed the form of Wagner's opera," this "poetical and magical
   version of the story" as a full-length verse play in five acts was regarded
   by Crowley as "the climax of the first period of my poetry." It was first
   published as a separate volume (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner,
   1901) and then included in Collected Works I (1905).

The God-Eaters: A Tragedy of Satire -- A verse play in two scenes, which
   its author judged "singularly unsatisfactory as a work of art, but extremely
   significant as a piece of autohagiography." Set in the twenty-first century
   as imagined from the end of the Old Aeon, the play demonstrates "that
   whatever may be the foundation of a religion, we must judge it by its
   present state." First published as a separate volume (London: Watts &
   Company, 1903), then included in Collected Works II (Foyers: SPRT,
   1906).

The Argonauts -- This full-length verse play in five acts was written during
   Crowley's travels, circa 1904. The work "is really five separate plays
    on the Greek pattern." Although the subject is the classical story of
   Jason and Medea, the work is studded with references to the sacred
   literature of ancient India, which Crowley was studying at the time.
   First published separately (Foyers: SPRT, 1904) and then included in
   Collected Works II (1906).

Why Jesus Wept: A Study in Society and the Grace of God -- The idea of
   this dramatic poem in thirteen scenes "is to show a romantic boy and
   girl ambushed and ruined by male and female vampires." It was written
   in two days at Kandy in Ceylon in January 1904, and after being printed
   in the author's private edition (n. p.: 1904) it was published in Collected
   Works III (Foyers: SPRT, 1907).

The Sire de Maletroit's Door (collaboration with Gerald Kelly) -- Crowley
   and his artistic brother-in-law adapted this melodrama from a tale in
   The New Arabian Nights by Robert Louis Stevenson. Medieval Paris
   is the setting for a test of love and will, in one of the few Crowley plays
   with an unashamedly happy ending. The two co- authors produced this
   play publicly in 1906, and it was afterwards published in Collected
   Works III (1907).

Ali Sloper, or, The Forty Liars: A Christmas Diversion -- The meeting of
   a formal occult society based upon the Golden Dawn is the occasion
   for this semi-dramatic prose satire, which was published in Konx Om
   Pax (London: W. Scott, 1907).

The Tell-Tale Heart: A Stage Adaptation -- Edgar Poe's story is recast as
   a single scene in prose, set in a rural cottage. Written in April 1907
   ("subject too horrid," Crowley complained in his diary at the time),
   it was eventually published in Equinox I:8 (London: September 1912).

The Suffragette: A Farce -- This prose sketch satirizing the politics of
   feminism appeared under the pseudonym of Lavinia King (the name
   Crowley used in Moonchild for a character based upon Isadora
   Duncan) in The New Age (London: 30 May 1908).

The World's Tragedy -- A full-length verse play, to which Crowley added
   an extended autobiographical introduction, this piece was written in
    Paris during the summer of 1908. Gods, dwarves, hags, and heroes
   inhabit a symbolic pageant of ancient landscapes, and it goes on for
   five acts after the prologue. Crowley published it in his own limited
   edition (Paris: 1908), and the play was reprinted much later by Israel
   Regardie (Phoenix: Falcon Press, 1985).

Mr Todd: A Morality -- This short prose play is based upon the personified
   figure of Death, who appears at intervals throughout the piece,
   bringing relief from their worries to each of the characters in turn.
   Written in Paris in July 1908, it was first printed privately in the
   author's miscellany volume The Winged Beetle (London: 1910), and
   then published in Equinox I:4 (London: September 1910).

AHA! (Liber CCXLII) -- An extended philosophical dialogue in verse, this
   semi-dramatic work was written in September 1909 at a critical turn
   in Crowley's development, when he "re-obligated" himself to Liber
   AL. He described it as "my greatest magical poem . . . in which the
   Cairo working is restored to its proper place in my life." The
   conversation between a master and his student "covers all religious
   experience, asserts no axioms, advocates no cut-and-dried codes. In
   some eleven hundred lines I have described all the principal trances,
   from the three types of Dhyana . . . and the four elements . . . to the
   spiritual beings that inhabit the invisible universe, and the Samadhic
   Trances." First published in Equinox I:3 (London: March 1910), it
   was reprinted in an edition by Israel Regardie (Dallas: Sangraal,
   1969) and is now available in a new edition prepared by James
   Wasserman which incorporates a fragment of commentary by Frater
   Achad (Tempe, AZ: New Falcon, 1996).

The Rites of Eleusis (Liber DCCCL) -- A cycle of seven "orderly, decorous
   ceremonies" (as Crowley defended them when scandal was falsely
   stirred up around their original performances) invoking the classical
   planetary gods, these are performance pieces incorporating dancing,
   musical solos, recitations, ceremonial rituals, and dramatic scenes.
   Although the seven rites "were really seven acts of one play," their
   continuity was not emphasized, and "the dialogue and action were little
   more than a setting for the soloists." Dress rehearsals for the cycle
   were held privately in autumn 1910, and public performances took
    place on a series of Wednesday evenings at Caxton Hall in Westminster
   in October and November 1910. Along with Crowley himself, Leila
   Waddell and Victor Neuberg were the principal performers. Two
   of the rites (Mars and Mercury) were written in collaboration with
   George Raffalovich, who also performed in them. First printed in a
   limited private edition for the author (London: 1910), they were then
    published as a supplement to Equinox I:6 (September 1911). The first
   complete edition of these rites (including the poems for recitation) was
    published by Ebony Anpu (San Francisco: Stellar Visions, 1987), and
   another complete edition has since appeared (Thane, Oxon., UK:
   Mandrake, 1990). Performance of the Eleusis cycle was revived by the
   Thelema Lodge community in the late 1970s, with 23 complete cycles
   staged here since then, and similar revivals now common throughout the
   world.

The Scorpion: A Tragedy -- Despite his subtitle, Crowley later described this
   play as "a romance, and neither comedy nor tragedy in the best sense."
   A prose play in three acts, it is one of his most effective dramas.
   Occultly based upon the 30 of freemasonry, the plot turns upon the birth
   of the O.T.O. tradition in Jerusalem during the Crusades. It was written
   in a sudden fit of inspiration in a hotel in El-Kantara, near the end of
   Crowley's stay in Algeria with Victor Neuberg, about January 1911, and
   published in Equinox I:6 (1911).

The Blind Prophet: A Ballet -- Attempting "a combination of ballet and grand
   opera," this verse play with music was written in transit between Algiers
   and Marseilles early in 1911. The silly old Prophet manages only to kill
    himself, preaching destruction upon the dancers in an Egyptian temple
   celebration. Published in Equinox I:5 (March 1911), it was set in type
   again for Crowley's anthology volume The Giant's Thumb (New York:
   Mitchell Kennerley, 1915) which was never printed.

Snowstorm: A Tragedy -- A prose play in three acts, set amidst the petty royalty
   of the generic Continental principality of "Fiordland," this work
   incorporates a series of violin solos for Leila Waddell. It was written in
   Eastbourne in the spring of 1911 and published in Equinox I:7 (March 1912).

Household Gods: A Comedy -- Described vaguely by its author as "a sort of
   magical allegory," this verse play was written in Italy around May 1911,
   and is one of the most directly erotic of Crowley's writings. A British
   barbarian of the Dark Ages works with his noble Roman wife to invoke the
   spirit of Pan. Printed only in the author's limited private edition of 1912,
   with the place of publication given as "Pallanza," the volume was actually
   produced by the Chiswick Press in London.

His Majesty's Fiddler: A Sketch -- This brief prose play was written in Paris
   during the summer of 1911 and is set in a Siberian penal outpost. The text
   reads somewhat improbably as drama without the virtuosity of Leila
   Waddell, for whom Crowley wrote several plays during this period.
    Although its title appears listed in the essay "Energized Enthusiasm"
   (1913), Crowley never got around to printing this one-act drama, and until
    now it has survived only as an archival typescript.

Elder Eel: A Sketch -- This single scene in prose, written in Scots idioms,
   concerns religious hypocrisy in a village market-place. Another product
   of the Paris summer of 1911, it was first published in Equinox I:8 (1912),
   and reprinted in International XII:3 (New York: March 1918).

The Ghouls: A Satire -- Inspired by a meeting in Paris with Fenella Lovell of
   Inverness, this prose play in two scenes is set in Scotland on the old
    Boleskine estate, and features "The M'Alister" in a leading role. "The
   Ghouls" and "Adonis" were both composed in Paris, "written straight off,
    one after the other" in August 1911. Published in Equinox I:7 (1912).

Adonis: An Allegory (Liber CCCXXXV) -- A lyric ritual drama in five scenes,
   set in the gardens of ancient Babylon, this is another of Crowley's greatest
   successes as a playwright, and was published in Equinox I:7 (1912).
   Later it was set in type for The Giant's Thumb (1915) but not printed.

Mortadello, or, The Angel of Venice: A Comedy -- The longest and one of the
   best of his poetic dramas, this lurid tragicomedy was the crowning
    achievement of Crowley's Paris summer of 1911. Set amidst the decadence
   of the Renaissance, it is written with amazing fluency in the Alexandrine
   meter (after the manner of French dramatic verse). It was published only
    as a separate volume (London: Wieland, 1911).

Doctor Bob: A Sketch (collaboration with Mary D'Este) -- A brief study in
    fatalism and mortality, set in a medical consulting room, this prose scene
   appeared in Equinox I:8 (1912).

The Tango: A Sketch (collaboration with Mary D'Este) -- The fiery dancer
    Jaja and her fiance, a bully named "Negro," create a scene on their
   farewell visit to Fischer's Cafe, a jazzy Paris nightclub. Published in
    Equinox I:9 (March 1913).

The Ship: A Mystery Play (Liber DCCC) -- This ritual drama in two scenes
   is a companion-piece to Liber XV (the gnostic mass), and was written
   along with it in Moscow in the summer of 1913. Set in the Temple of
   the Sun, the mystery of the play is the resurrection of John the Priest,
   expressing (as Crowley later commented) "the full interpretation of the
   central mystery of freemasonry." It includes the original long version
   of the gnostic anthem, part of which is used in the mass. Published in
   Equinox I:10 (September 1913), it would have appeared again in The
   Giant's Thumb (1915) but that volume survives only as the author's
   bound proof copy. This play has had several performances in the Order
   of late; it was staged to great acclaim in 2001 e.v. at the O.T.O.
   convention in Long Beach, and copies of a video recording made there
   have been distributed on cassette by 93 Lodge.

The Three Wishes: A Play in Three Acts and a Prologue -- Written in
   American idioms, this full- length prose drama follows the lives and
   careers of three men who are periodically reunited by a pact they have
   made in childhood. Never printed, this work is nowhere even referred
   to in print, and its date cannot be certainly established, though presumably
    it was written in New York during the first world war. Crowley is
   supposed to have sent it later to Orson Wells (probably for the Mercury
   Theater) but nothing is known of its reception. A complete typescript
   survives in O.T.O. archives.

The Bonds of Marriage: A Romantic Farce in One Act -- A young wife
   engages the services of master detective Slyman Squiff ("the man who
   arrested Edward Kelly!") to investigate her husband's infidelity, in this
   prose sketch "set in any city in the United States." The whole thing turns
   into an advertisement for wartime Liberty Bonds. It was published in
   International XII:3 (1918).

The Gods: A Drama -- Suspended in eternity, the ancient gods discuss the
   nature and creation of time. This short piece is set amidst the stars of
   heaven, and purports to be a translation "from the Coptic of Iao Sabio."
   It too was published in International XII:3 (1918). We performed this
   play in celebration of the spring equinox of 2002 e.v. in Horus Temple
   at Thelema Lodge, and it then appeared in the Thelema Lodge Calendar
   (July 2002).

The Saviour: A Drama in One Scene -- Hysteria grips the Council of Elders,
   under siege in the generic European city of Blabre. In the crisis they
   ignore the advice of their Fool, and are persuaded by a local Prophet to
   accept the long-promised "Saviour." Written in New York in the summer
   of 1915, this prose play was intended for stage production under the
   direction of Morris Brown. The production was never realized, and the
   play eventually appeared in International XII:3 (1918), Crowley's
    special "all drama" issue.

The Pearl Girl, or, The Whale, the Siren, and the Shoestring -- A comic
   screenplay in three reels for the silent cinema, with notes indicating
    established stars of the period for the leading roles, accompanied by
   five crude drawings of the principal figures (presumably from the
    author's own sketchpad), this satirical summary was published in
   Vanity Fair (New York: June 1916). Billed as the "winner of the
   thousand-dollar reward for the worst short film story," it describes an
   improbable sequence of extravagantly artificial situations. A wealthy
   Mexican girl wearing a fabulous pearl is kidnapped in New York and
   winds up in frozen Alaska, where an "exquisite blonde" fisherwoman
    finds the pearl, takes it to London, is arrested as a spy, and escapes by
   German submarine to New York, where she meets the Mexican girl.
    This piece was reprinted with its illustrations in Thelema Lodge
   Calendar (September 1998).

The Opium Dream -- This work may have been either a stage play or a
   screenplay, which Crowley outlined but may never have completed.
   It has seven scenes, without dialogue, each culminating in the expression
    of a single powerful emotion. There seem to be no references from
   which its date might be established, but the summary in five typescript
   pages (published in the Thelema Lodge Calendar, October 1998)
   survives in O.T.O. archives.

The Astrologer -- The composition of this screenplay at Cefalu is recorded
   in Crowley's diary for late August 1920, along with its revision the
   following month. The diary refers to various characters and situations,
   but nothing further is known of this piece. It was never filmed, and may
   not have survived at all.

Thelema Lodge Events Calendar for January 2003 e.v.

    The viewpoints and opinions expressed herein are the responsibility of the contributing authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of OTO or its officers.

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