Moloch : A play in a prologue, three acts and an epilogue

Set in a modest country house just as spring wanes, the opening scene gathers a multi‑generational family around a warm hearth. The Professor, a scholarly septuagenarian, and his sister Lydia sit playing patience while their daughter Katherine arranges fresh flowers, each detail painting a portrait of domestic tranquility. Yet the walls are lined with hunting trophies and battle prints, subtle foreshadowing of the storm that soon engulfs them.

When news of mobilization arrives, Robert, the family’s head, is torn between duty to his country and devotion to his wife Katherine and their children. The play follows his reluctant enlistment, the fraying of relationships, and the arrival of soldiers and officers who embody the machinery of war. Through sharp dialogue and vivid scenes, the drama explores how ordinary lives are reshaped by conflict, hinting at both the horrors of the front and the fragile hope that persists at home.