JOHN Arden, the Yorkshire political playwright, is 73 and still writing in his adopted home of Ireland.

"The older one gets, the more angry one gets, especially about political force being used for dubious purposes," he says.

His best known work remains the pacifist, anti-imperialist Serjeant Musgrave's Dance, written in 1959 and relevant anew in 2003 in the wake of much opposition to the American-British attack on Iraq.

Arden's tale of army deserters arriving in a cold, strike-torn mining town on a strange mission is being revived by the Oxford Stage Company, and Sean Holmes's production marches into York Theatre Royal next week.

Arden is always pleased to hear of any revival. "It's mostly done by amateurs these days because the cast needs at least 14 actors, which is the number in the Oxford company, and you can't double any of the parts because all the actors are in all the action," he says.

The Barnsley-born playwright recalls the mood in which he put pen to paper in the late 1950s. "It was written in a mood of hatred of wars and unnecessary violence in political action, in response to a nasty war in 1958 in Cyprus, where there was this incident involving a British soldier being killed and his unit losing its head, going round a city killing people," John says. "It was something that was covered up at the time, and the following year I wrote my play, though it wasn't a naturalistic account of events."

Arden remains a passionate pacifist. "In Iraq, events have clearly got of hand. I didn't believe the Iraqis had weapons of mass destruction before the war started and I believe it even less now. It was not a cause to make a war," he says. "So I'm pleased to see my play is being done at this time. I do think it's appropriate."

Searjeant Musgrave's Dance is 44 years old but Arden sees no reason to modernise it. "I wouldn't be tempted to re-write it now: I did bring it up to date in 1973 for a 7:84 Company production set in the time of the Irish troubles and miners' strike, but it was an experiment I didn't consider worth repeating and I didn't see fit to publish it," he says.

"When I did that documentary version, you kept thinking 'What would Arthur Scargill do in that situation?'."

Serjeant Musgrave's Dance, Oxford Stage Company, York Theatre Royal, November 18 to 22. Box office: 01904 623568.

Updated: 09:30 Friday, November 14, 2003