Summary

A one-act play of the non-realism model.

Woman at Sundown is derivative in style, resembling Oscar Wilde's Salome in some respects though nevertheless authentic in its own right for, like so much of his work, in this play can be found Naish's own life view and preoccupations. A fatal attraction is central to the narrative. The play is set somewhere in the Middle East in a village surrounded by desert in the years before Christ. The characters include a Woman; a Maiden and her suitors Jaffar, a youth; Rhemat, a soldier; Gaal, a merchant' and offstage voices of the winds.

As the Woman and the Maiden debate these opposed suitors they are also debating opposed world views. The ending, in which Rhemat kills Jaffar, and Gaal kills Rhemat (or at least arranges his death, and certainly arranges his flight from the land), and the Maiden marries Gaal, is deeply sad, even tragic. Naish's identification with Jaffar can be discerned—both the romance of nature that Jaffar stands for, and also Jaffar's death.