Extracts from The Devil Inside Him, the first play written by John Osborne to be produced, and Personal Enemy, the second. Both plays, which predate Look Back in Anger, were thought lost until their recent discovery in the archive of the Lord Chamberlain, who had the power to censor all plays until 1968.

THE DEVIL INSIDE HIM

The Devil Inside Him is the story of Huw Prosser, a plain-speaking young man growing up in a deeply conservative Welsh village. In this extract, Huw is challenged by Gruffuyd, the village minister and self-appointed moral authority.

Gruffuyd: Well, I don’t have to tell you why I am here. I have known you all your life Huw. I christened you when you were a tiny baby. It was I who made you a child of God. I know you as I know every other man, woman and child in the village. I have watched you carefully and this I know, a few words from me to Dr Hillman and you would be put away. Do you hear me? Put away. I don’t know what wickedness is in you. Not even you may know that. But it is there. The devil is inside you, Huw. Can you feel him? Living in the filth inside you?

Times Archive, 1968: The world of John Osborne

I can think of no other playwright who has earned the privileges that Osborne now enjoys

• Look Back in Anger at the Royal Court, 1956

• Leading article: Wrath at The Helm?

Huw turns away in fear.

Do you know what becomes of people like you? Do you know what is waiting for you? When you die? I know many times I have stood at the bedside of the dying. And sometimes I have offered up prayers for them, knowing that they could never be answered.

Huw cries out and tries to stop him but Gruffuyd grasps hold of him by the collar and sits him down, holding him. He goes on relentlessly.

Do you know what happens to such people when they are dead Huw? Black, terrible nothing. Lost darkness in the well of the dead land between earth and heaven. Coffin after coffin I have seen descend into the damp clay to rot with man or woman inside it. But they are neither man nor woman in that hollow land. They are decayed fragments, chipped off from their fellow men. You are very near to that land now. Perhaps, sometimes, when you are asleep you see it, eh? Perhaps you feel yourself falling into it. Falling into the eternity of fear – do you?

Huw manages to break away from his firm grasp and goes to the window, his hands convulsing.

Oh yes, you are afraid aren’t you? For you have seen it haven’t you? When others are at peace with God and asleep, you are fighting at the crumbling edges of the earth. You’re possessed. What does it feel like? To have it thrashing itself against the inside of you like the ugly reptile it is? But we’ve got to get it out of you. It will writhe like a dying snake as we smother him. But we must get him out. On Sunday when you come to chapel you will stay behind and we will go down on our knees and pray together for your sick soul and your weak body. You will pray until the skin on your knees hardens. You’ll pray now! On your knees boy! On your knees to your God and pray for release from the wickedness that has invaded your soul. On your knees. Well! Can’t you hear me?

Huw: No. No. I won’t (Rounding like a trapped animal)

Gruffuyd: (Outraged) What! (Advances and grasps Huw by the collar) Down! (They struggle fiercely) Out, devil! Out!

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