The Dark Is Light Enough
play written by Christopher Fry
The Dark Is Light Enough is a 1954 verse play by Christopher Fry, which he wrote for Dame Edith Evans and set during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. It is formally a comedy, but Fry subtitled the play 'A Winter Comedy' to signal its tragic qualities.
The play, directed by Peter Brook, premiered at the Aldwych Theatre in London in May 1954.
Original London cast
Jakob – John Moffatt
Bellmann – Hugh Griffith
Kassel (Doctor) – Peter Bull
Stefan (Son of the Countess) – Peter Barkworth
Bella – Violet Farebrother
Willi – David Spencer
Gelda (Daughter of the Countess) – Margaret Johnston
Richard Gettner – James Donald
Countess Rosmarin Ostenburg – Edith Evans
Colonel Janik – John Glen
Count Peter Zichy – Jack Gwillim
Beppy – George Murcell
Rusti – Patrick Halliday
1st Soldier – Peter Sallis
2nd Soldier – Frederick Treves
3rd Soldier – Churton Fairman
Source: The Stage.
Original Broadway cast
The extended preview season started on Broadway at the ANTA Playhouse on 23 February 1955 and closed on 23 April 1955, after a total of 69 performances. It was directed by Guthrie McClintic.
Countess Rosmarin Ostenburg – Katharine Cornell
Richard Gettner – Tyrone Power
Gelda (Daughter of the Countess) – Marian Winters
Colonel Janik – Arnold Moss
Count Peter Zichy – Christopher Plummer
Stefan (Son of the Countess) – Paul Roebling
Kassel (Doctor) – William Podmore
Bella – Eva Condon
Belmann – John Williams
Fourth Soldier – Dario Barri
Third Soldier – Jerome Gardino
Beppy – Ted Gunther
Jakob – Donald Harron
Willi – Charles Macaulay
Rusti, A Hungarian corporal – Sydney Pollack
Adaptations
A 90-minute BBC TV version was broadcast in January 1958, starring Edith Evans as the Countess and Peter Wyngarde as Richard Gettner. It was directed by Stuart Burge.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “The Dark Is Light Enough” is play written by Christopher Fry. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Dark, Light and Enough, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “play written by Christopher Fry” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 6, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q7729027. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1954, 1848, 1955 and 1958.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Dark Is Light Enough” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.