GABRIEL is a play about how things may appear to be one way but actually be another. In it, Stephen plays a dying young man found on the beach of the Nazi-occupied island of Guernsey in 1943. He has no memory of who he is or what has happened to him. A little girl, Estelle, finds him and brings him back to where she lives. She calls him Gabriel because it is a name she is fond of. Because Gabriel speaks fluent German and recently a young SS Officer being transferred to Berlin had been lost from a launch, everyone just assumes that it must be he.

The little girl, Estelle, plays with "power squares" that though child's play, seem eerily to come to pass. Just before Gabriel appears she had said, "...and let my brother come like a bright angel and save me. Save me." And though Estelle thinks of him as a bright angel, Von Pfunz sees him as a dark angel. He says,"Hitler's brightest angels...the SS. This young man was an officer."

Von Pfunz appears to be cultured and refined, but at the core, he is base and crude. One of his little hobbies is writing "poetry" about the Nazi atrocities he has seen. Another is toying with people. At one place he says: "There is an element of choice in human affairs. When someone tells you they have no choice they're invariably lying. They've merely assessed their position and gone for the line of least resistance; the option which will cause them the least trouble."

It is also a play about secrets and about who one can trust. Von Pfunz says the only thing he respects is the truth, but it is not really true. Based on this, Jeanne makes the very bad choice of trusting Von Pfunz with her most closely guarded secrets, and he is the very person who can hurt her the most, by using them against her. Of him, Jeanne says, "And tomorrow, because he's discovered we're hiding you, and because hiding you is a Very Serious Crime, he's going to come here like a cat tormenting mice. He'll spend the day playing with us, and afterwards, he'll arrest my family and me." Jeanne for the most part is made to appear hard and cynical, but when push comes to shove, she does what is necessary. She doesn't like her daughter-in-law, Lily, much, but when threatened by Von Pfunz, she not only stabs him, but covers up the murder by placing the weapon in Gabriel's hand, smearing blood on him, and sending him running into the night. Gabriel is innocent, but appearances once again are deceiving, and the soldiers surrounding the house will assume he did the murder. The last line of dialogue of the play: Estelle says: "I saw Gabriel running to the beach. So fast...his feet were not touching the ground. I could tell." Just like one would expect of the angel she called in her power square.

Gabriel was commissioned by Paul Sirett in September, 1995.  It was the Winner of the LWT Plays on Stage Award in 1996.  It was first performed on 1 May 1997 at Soho Theatre.   The play can be purchased to read, at the Internet Bookshop. If anybody knows of a video copy, please email me!