The Fox

A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE

The Fox

Full-Length Play, Drama  /  2w, 1m

Allan Miller, D.H. Lawrence

By Allan Miller / Based on the short novel by D.H. Lawrence

A taut suspenseful exploration of gender and power, true to D.H. Lawrence.

Image: Ed Krieger

  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    2w, 1m
  • Duration
    Duration
    More than 120 minutes (2 hours)
  • SubGenre
    Subgenre
    Adaptation (Literature)
  • Suggested Use
    • Scene Work
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult, Senior, Teen (Age 14-18)
Accolades
Accolades
  • Nominee: 21 Los Angeles Drama Critics Awards, including playwrighting and adaptation

Details

Summary

The Fox is a drama of three-cornered love set in the austere north of England at the end of WWI. Two young women have been living on a farm, working it as best they can, and wondering if they can survive another harsh winter. A young soldier, who claims to have lived on the farm with his grandfather years earlier, arrives. He kills the fox that has been preying on their livestock and gets their hens laying again, but while putting everything back in order he also begins to come between these two women who have lived and dreamed together for years. The tug of war between these three builds to a primordial battle of wills, sexuality, dominance and finally violence.

Written to be performed with two intermissions, but can also be performed with one.

History
The Fox premiered at the Back Alley Theatre in Los Angeles in 1981 and transferred to the Las Palmas Theatre in Hollywood. It was produced by The Roundabout Theatre in New York in 1982, and since then has been produced extensively in regional, community and college theatres, toured England, and has had productions globally, including in Australia, Argentina, Belgium, Germany and Norway.
JILL BANFORD – Nearly thirty. A small achy creature.
NELLIE MARCH – Nearly thirty. Tall and strong-looking.
HENRY GRENFEL – Twenty. A Soldier. Lean.
  • Time Period 1910s/WWI
  • Features Period Costumes
  • Duration More than 120 minutes (2 hours)
  • Cautions
    • Mild Adult Themes

Media

“Dramatically charged to the point of explosion… tautly coiled… a magnetic evening.” – The Los Angeles Times

“…a surprise and distinct pleasure to encounter Allan Miller’s evocation of D.H. Lawrence’s novella The Fox…an impassioned tale…an imaginative play, with three vibrantly theatrical characters…In his adaptation, Mr. Miller has captured the isolation and the straining for contact, the environmental bleakness and the turbulence that stirs just beneath the surface. There is a dramatic tension on stage that is quite the equal of the Lawrence story.” – The New York Times

“A muscular dramatization…the play has a powerful central conflict…theatrically exciting emotional fireworks. The tragic ending is a satisfying capper to an absorbing play.” – Variety

“Miller beautifully transfers Lawrence’s verbal imagery to the stage in an engrossing dramatic script.” – Hollywood Reporter

“A work of art…a major theatrical event…worthy of Pulitzer Prize consideration. This is living, vital, pulsing theatre at its best.” – Free Press

The Fox is about as perfect a theatre work as you’ll ever see. It caroms and rolls with sexual intensity, an air of foreboding and, at its shocking climax, almost unbearable suspense.” – Century City News

“Dramatically charged to the point of explosion…tautly coiled…a magnetic evening. It is a play to argue about, argue with. Every moment in the play is either a question or an answer, and the need to know the final answer grows as we go deeper in. This is the rare adaptation that honors its source while having the guts to depart from it.” – The Los Angeles Times

“Rooted in the taut, naturalistic style of D.H. Lawrence’s novella, Allan Miller’s script for The Fox retains the intensity of feeling, psychological insight and vivid evocation of nature found in the original work.” – Variety

“Well-crafted and unsettling… The Fox explores a host of relevant, palpable themes about love, sexual attraction, fidelity, loyalty, and the ups-and-downs of living a staid, settled, existence. Although the story was written by D.H. Lawrence 91 years ago, Allan Miller’s play adaptation stands the test of time.” – The Easy


Photos

  • The Fox

    Image: Ed Krieger

  • The Fox

    Image: Ed Krieger

  • The Fox

    Image: Ed Krieger

  • The Fox

    Image: Ed Krieger

  • The Fox

    Image: Ed Krieger

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Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: £55 per performance plus VAT when applicable.

Scripts

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Authors

Allan Miller

Allan Miller wrote The Fox originally as a vehicle for himself as a young actor. Although optioned for Broadway in the 1960s, the play was not produced at that time. It languished in a trunk until 1981, when Mr. Miller directed the world premiere at the Back Alley Theatre, w ...
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Author

D.H. Lawrence

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