Coronation Of Charles
To Anouilh, her victory, the
coronation of Charles, is the high
point of her story. To Anouilh,
this is how she should be remembered;
and he finished his
play with that image, which he
calls in his stage directions "a
beautiful illustration from a school
prize."
Yet something prevents the story
of Joan of Arc from becoming another
Kirk Douglas-epic. That element
is the theme which Anouilh
first states and then neglects-her
desertion, her loss of innocence,
and her discovery that she can
live courageously and meaningfully
in spite of that loss.
The Cabell Hall production of
"The Lark" mutilated that theme.
As this review has tried to make
clear, any major faults in the
Virginia Player's production originated
in the script itself. Nevertheless,
their injudicious editing
(or possibly a poor choice of translations)
left less time and emphasis
to the execution and to the events
immediately preceding it than did
at least one available version.
For example, their use of slides
projected onto three screens, which
elsewhere in the play was extremely
effective, was used to encapsulate
the execution scene by turning it
into a slide show. As a result,
the entire scene where Joan demands
a cross and is given two
sticks tied together by an English
soldier was omitted.
