Perhaps the restlessness of youth made him seek a more exciting existence than that offered by rural Devon with its life dictated by the seasons and the Church calendar. He abandoned this narrow, ordered country existence for London’s Elizabethan theatre which was as unrestrained and boisterous as the society from which it sprang. Rather like today, its audiences revelled in depictions of gruesome murder, madness, vengeance, violence and lust. From his work we see that Ralph Strong was a man of passion, a man of his age, and had he lived, perhaps we might regard him today as one of its foremost dramatists. From the programme notes for The Fair Wife of Padua It was the last week of term and Pam Peterson knew she would soon be free. Free of the routine of taking Michael to nursery each day and leaving Amelia with the childminder. Free of having to prepare lessons and write reports every evening. The thought made her heart lighter somehow.
