Aldwych Theatre, London 22 October 1962 Poem by Roger Hudson

Nervous audience settles into red plush comfort
in fashionable Victorian theatre,
embraces stage picture in cosy dark,
as great mauve canopy billows out
in stunning theatrical effect
of sheer physical beauty,
as young lovers Troilus and Cressida are carried on stage
in ancient war to end wars

Homer and Shakespeare unite
in portrayal of glory and misery of war,
as we the audience sit enthralled,
our hands clenched in dread,
aware that across the Atlantic, beyond our control,
rulers of Camelot debate
decisions that could
unleash the nuclear war
to end our world
and we are powerless
to save ourselves
or the Trojans.