I was rather temted by tonight's offering (having much admired a much earlier Radio 3 production of the work), but then I read those dreaded words, "The music is taken from 'The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace', by Karl Jenkins.". I no longer feel the draw.
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Well, thanks for giving the thread a bump and reminding me, Bryn,Originally posted by Bryn View Post
I think I'll have to give it a go. I'm not as prejudiced as you against the Jenkins as I'm not aware of ever having heard it
It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world. -
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And given that the action of the play begins in 1429 you can take the music when it comes as being authentic or pastiche. It only serves to add a slightly 'monkish' atmosphere at some intervals.Originally posted by Russ View Post
The play: well, I think I might have thoroughly enjoyed it if attending a live performance. I have no strong criticisms of either the performances or the production. Obviously, is also fitted in with the theme of the series.
As a work, I don't think it's as thought-provoking as some of his other plays (and, yes, I do find some thought-provoking!). I struggle to discover in what ways St Joan (the play) has relevance to our own times. There were a few typically Shavian bits of hard-headed cynicism which led, nevertheless, to the unexpected conclusion: it was no miracle that the village girl recognised the Dauphin among the crowd of courtiers; but that the people/soldiers thought it a miracle and that was enough to inspire them with confidence - there was the miracle.
The shifting of belief and confidence drove the plot: so far could Joan take those in power, but no further. And once she determined to press on against their advice - and their belief that she could win, she was lost. Church and nobility were against a girl who threatened to vest their power in the figure of the king, as representative of God and the Nation. She was sacrificed.
Lyndsey Marshal was a convincing 17-year-old, excitedly shrill and hysterical rather than calmly convinced. Blake Ritson presented the usual childish Dauphin, impotently throwing tantrums in the adult world. At the end he had clearly grown up.
I found some of the characters rather hard to identify at times, but Anton Lesser's Archbishop and Trystan Gravelle's Dunois came over well.
[I wish they'd sought Somerset advice on the pronunciation of 'Stogumber', though]
It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.Comment
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Good to hear it again but while I could imagine Siobhan McKenna as Joan in 1954, who could imagine Kenneth Williams as the Dauphin in the same production?
It was while Williams was playing this role that Dennis Main Wilson 'spotted' him and invited him to join the cast of Hancock's Half Hour apparently - the rest is history.Comment
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