Imprisoned in solitary confinement by the Nazis, a stolen book of chess games allows The Prisoner to cling to sanity, dividing his mind into two feuding chess masters. After his escape, the play’s climax follows him to a chess tournament. Daring himself to walk the edge of a volcano of madness, he challenges the greatest chess player in the world to a match. Richard McElvain returns to the Fringe with a world premiere based on Stefan Zweig’s classic short story, published as The Royal Game.