About the Play:

Two Plays about God and Man contains two one-act plays by Dorothy L. Sayers. These two plays, The Devil to Pay and He That Should Come, have proved successful additions to the school and church dramatic repertoire everywhere. Here they are accompanied by professional suggestions for amateur productions.

The Devil to Pay was commissioned by Canterbury Cathedral and was presented at the Canterbury Festival in June 1939. It retells the story of Doctor Faustus, who sold his soul to the devil, and how God dealt with him at the last. The moral is: evil cannot be undone, but only purged and redeemed. The Devil to Pay was produced in July 1939 at His Majesty's Theatre in London and ran for four weeks.

He That Should Come is a Nativity play, which was originally for radio production, although this version has been adapted for the stage. While most Nativity plays take what may be called a devotional approach, Dorothy L. Sayers gives us the story of the birth of Jesus in (except for a prologue and and epilogue) a straightforwardly naturalistic setting, in the bustle of a crowded inn, where most of those present have no idea that anything particularly significant is going on. He That Should Come was originally broadcast on Christmas Day in 1938.

About the Playwright:

Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957) was an English author of novels, short stories, radio plays, poetry collections, essays, reviews and translations of Dante. Although she was a lay theologian and noted Christian scholar, she is most known for her detective fiction. She was one of the first women to be awarded a degree from Oxford University. Her first book featuring Lord Peter Wimsey was published in 1923 and over the next 20 years more novels and short stories about the aristocratic amateur sleuth appeared. Dorothy L. Sayers is recognized as one of the greatest mystery writers of the 20th century.