CONTEMPORARY ARTS
THE THEATRE
"Saint Joan." By Bernard Shaw. (New.) Tins moving performance of the finest play of our greatest living dramatist should most certainly be seen.
Mr. Shaw claims that his play is true to history so far as the records in existence allow. That may be ; it is impossible to re- capture the absolute truth of an historical occurrence even a few years after it has taken place, let alone a few centuries. But Mr. Shaw has recaptured the spirit of one of the great events in the
history of the world. While he shows in the other characters of his play his usual irony and mockery of" the masks and mummeries and triumphs of this world," he has come nearer to poetry and reverence in his delineation of Joan than elsewhere in his works. This play and this character may come to stand as his finest achievement and as, an outstanding contribution to our stage and literature.
One can safely expect of the Old Vic Company efficient acting, good team work and intelligent staging ; and they are all here. The trial scene and the difficult epilogue are particularly well done. From
a somewhat pedestrian beginning—the first scene, in spite of a good performance by Bernard Miles as de- Baudricourt, is the least im-
pressive of the play—the theme gathers in power and dignity to a climax which might well have misfired with less skilful and sym- pathetic handling. Leaving aside Joan herself for the moment, there are a number of fine performances to be praised. Bernard Miles doubles the parts of de Baudricourt and the Inquisitor with outstanding success, and his delivery of the long speech in the trial scene is a masterpiece of plausible bigotry. Alec Guinness as the Dauphin manages to be
entirely amusing and yet to retain a certain dignity and to enlist a half-contemptuous indulgence for his weakness. Dunois, Shaw's
unusually sympathetic presentation of a soldier, is well done by John Clements. Harry Andrews as the Earl of Warwick suggests the great noble—or, in his first appearance, the Regency, buck—rather than the crafty Politician, but speaks and acts with the well-bred, almost unconscious arrogance, fitted to the part. Cauchon (Mark Dignam), on the other hand, in spite of his constant reminders of the power of the Church, seems more political than ecclesiastical ; he too speaks his lines well. Kenneth Connor as de Stogumber plays the part of a clerical blimp effectively. The minor parts are all well done ; Peter Copley as Brother Martin and George Rose as the blackguard soldier are worthy of special mention. And now for Miss Celia Johnson's Saint Joan." Within her physical limitations it is a fine performance. She has hardly the scope for Shaw's heroine, who must be in turn the rustic but compelling country lass, the inspiring warrior, the inspired saint. Miss Johnson is least effective in the first of these roles and most effective in the last. There is a sense of disappointment-at first, for in the first two scenes she does little to portray the upsophisticated country girl ; though the playing enlists one's sympathy, it does not suggest the Joan who has never been to castle or court before, there is no rusticity and she seems too much and at once at home. As the warrior, in the second pan of the play, Miss Johnson speaks her lines finely ; and it is not her fault that she lacks robustness and looks altogether too unsubstantial to wear armour or to lead a charge. It is in the last part of the play, in the trial scene and in the epilogue, that her quiet and spiritual playing of the part shows best. In these scenes she gives a beautiful and compelling performance. She may not be quite Jeanne d'Arc the country girl whose prowess in the field tore from the English ;he first of the three empires they have won and lost, nor the robust, sensible, yet ethereal Saint Joan of Shaw's great play, but she gives a moving interpretation of that Joan or Jeanne who will live, as she prophesied, in the hearts of the common folk for ever, as one who, for the cause of her people, fought and suffered
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