Composers and their stage works 



A Sleeping Clergyman

James Bridie

Melodrama (1933)


Providence is described as the Sleeping Clergyman who can change evil to good in three generations.

The opening scene depicts the Clergyman fast asleep while two doctors are discussing the tawdry history of the Marshall Cameron family, a story of crime and genius, which is then re-enacted. After Charlie Cameron, a brilliant but wild medical student, has died from phthisis, a form of pulmonary tuberculosis, his mistress Harriet, who is the sister of his friend Dr. Marshall, gives birth to Wilhelmina.

Dr. Marshall fosters the child. Wilhelmina becomes pregnant by John Hannah, a poor medical student, whom she murders. The scene returns to the doctors, who tell about the murder trial and Wilhelmina's pregnancy. After giving birth to twins six months later, Wilhelmina commits suicide, leaving the orphans in Marshall's care. Ironically, the twins become persons of genius and saviours of mankind during a mysterious plague. They have come full circle, inheriting the genius of their ancestor Charlie Cameron.