Serjeant Musgrave's Dance

A serjeant and three soldiers descend on a snowbound northern town, ostensibly seeking recruits.  They are in fact deserters, and their leader is obsessed with a feverish mission to awaken his countrymen to the futility and cruelty of war.  The nightmare atmosphere conjured up by the writing puts John Arden at one jump in the forefront of modern dramatists.