Christopher Fry is a very poetic British playwright. He has often been called the British Shakespeare because of his great insights into human nature and his eloquent use of language.

The story is an old one taken from the Greeks through the Romans, but the tale has been borrowed and re-invented many times since. It is set in a tomb in the Greek city of Ephesus and involves a recent widow and her maid-servant. They are starving themselves to death so they can join their master in the Elysian Fields. The maid-servant, Doto, offers comic contrast to the bereaved wife Dynamane, who spends her time bemoaning her fate and lionizing her late husband, Virilius.

As Dynamane sleeps, a soldier happens upon the tomb on his watch. He is supposedly guarding six hanged criminals until morning when they will be buried. His curiosity gets the better of him when he hears voices in the tomb so he investigates. Doto receives her handsome visitor (who is bearing food and wine) gratefully. She has grown tired of starving and welcomes the diversion.

Soon she and her new-found friend, Tegeus, are drinking together.

When Tegeus looks upon the sleeping widow and hears of her great love and loyalty towards her former husband, he is impressed by her devotion and her desire to join him. However, when Doto falls asleep from too much wine and Dynamane awakens, she and Tegeus soon find themselves attracted to each other as they converse. To complicate matters further, one of the bodies he was in charge of guarding disappears in his absence, which means he faces the death penalty himself for being remiss in his duty.

The plot itself is very interesting, but it’s the characters and the language that really keep us hypnotized throughout the 90-minute production. There is also a lot of humor in the play, which an audience always welcomes.

This play was written after World War II, a war Christopher Fry served in for four years though he was a pacifist. One of the reasons "Phoenix" was so well-received in 1946 when it was first produced was that it was romantic and optimistic, a much needed antidote after the war. Today, it is still enjoyed, probably because people are always looking for something hopeful to focus on.

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 Synopsis from: http://www.gmtoday.com