The Lark

Introduction of one more account of the events leading to the burning of Joan of Arc involves considerable audacity. Yet the current version, The Lark, justifies the attempt. With beguiling Julie Harris in the title role, The Lark is a startling, modernistic interpretation. More important, it is conceived from a distinctly American view-point. Lillian Hellman has skillfully adapted Jean Anouiln's material into a revealing portrait of a high spirited Joan.

In the past, Joan's Joie de vivre often seemed obscured by a depressing exploitation of her thwarted ambition. Except for a short interval between the signing and subsequent renunciation of her confession, the audience is now spared this tedium. Joan's American flavor has been achieved through a strenuous effort to forget the Frenchidiom. By not attempting to imitate the French manner, she makes the French-American transition unusually successful. Through here dialogue never degenerates to slang, she uses, with esprit, the most familiar expressions of common talk. Miss Harris is at once winsome and commanding, always conscious of her position in the struggle. The abrupt change in Joan's outlook when she renounces the confession is electrifying.

Just as Joan has been put in an American context to heighten her joyful spirit, so the other characters have been adapted with varying degrees of success, however. Boris Karloff is a restrained and very effective Cauchon. While he is sympathetic, the role demands an unwavering conception of duty which permits little new interpretation. Theodore Bikel, as Robert de Beauricourt, is properly rowdy but perhaps a victim of the incongruity of French and American vulgarity. His almost Prussian manner may be an attempt to breach the gap, but it is an inadequate one. If Christopher Plummber had rendered Warwick American-style, the result would have been ludicrous. Happily, he has adopted all the confidence of the cynical Englishman looking down upon fifteenth century France. He is also an amusing, if unnecessary, intermediary between play and audience; through distinguished diction he fills this function well.

New World technique is not confined to acting in The Lark. Jo Miclziner's light-settings provide a pervarding modernistic tone. Although the effects are flashy, they are never offensive. In lieu of sets, Mr. Mielziner may have as many as three clashing colors splashed on stage at one time, but he never distracts attention from the players. Leonard Bernstein's incidental choral music, of which much is modal, seems equally impressive.

"That was a nice day," Joan concludes, recalling the Dauphin's coronation. Inspired writing, acting, graphic art and music have been combined magnificently to make The Lark not only a nice, but a thoroughly refreshing day for the American theater.