Saint Alban

St Alban, who perished in AD 303 was the first British martyr in the cause of personal liberty. His father was a Roman officer and his mother British. When quite young he was sent from Britain to Rome to be educated in the house of his uncle, Claudius Priscus, but his mother's Christian influence set him apart from his pagan relatives. The play opens with Alban's first serious clash with the tyranny of Imperial Rome and his revulsion against the brutal treatment of Christians. Shortly afterwards, he arrives in Britain to take possession of his late parents' estate. He finds the Roman domination rapidly encroaching on the civil and religious liberties of the British, his sympathies increase and he realises they are inseperable from the fundamentals of Christian faith. It is not long before he is harbouring a fugitive Christian priest by whom he is Baptised and with whom he is arrested and charged with capital offences against the Roman law in Britain. The final scene of the play is the trial of Alban and the priest. Claudius, while furous at his nephew's conversion and condemnation of Rome, endeavours to gain him clemancy but the Govenor is relentless. In a tense and moving scene, Alban conducts his own defence, asking no mercy, and bold in his scorn of the Imperial persecution and denial of liberty. Amphibalus, the priest, is equally couragious and as the play closes both go bravely to their deaths.