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A review by cosmological
The Lark by Jean Anouilh
5.0
CAUCHON. So then, Joan, you excuse Man all his faults and think him one of G-d’s greatest miracles?
JOAN. Yes, my Lord.
PROMOTER. It’s blasphemy. Man is filth, lust, a nightmare of obscenity.
JOAN. Yes, my Lord. He sins; he is evil enough. And then something happens: it may be he is coming out of a brothel, roaring out his bawdy songs in praise of a good time, and suddenly he has thrown himself at the reins of a runaway horse to save some child he has never seen before; his bones broken; he dies at peace.
PROMOTER. But he dies like an animal, without a priest, in the full damnation of sin.
JOAN. No, my Lord. He dies in the light which was lighted within him when the world began. He behaved as a man, in doing evil and doing good, and G-d created him in that contradiction to make his difficult way.
—
I’m a huge fan of every Anouilh adaptation I’ve read thus far and revisiting this one never fails to make me go absolutely fucking insane! Every day I wake up and I think about “But when something is black I cannot say it is white. That is all.” I just love this play very much and I especially love how it’s structured, allowing for it all to bleed together and figures of the past to interact with the judges (the stage direction revealing the shame Joan’s father feels when he realizes the judges can see him beating her, even though, obviously, they can’t, was a particularly cutting way to establish this) and that conclusion.......Joan Of Arc: A Story Which Ends Happily.
JOAN. Yes, my Lord.
PROMOTER. It’s blasphemy. Man is filth, lust, a nightmare of obscenity.
JOAN. Yes, my Lord. He sins; he is evil enough. And then something happens: it may be he is coming out of a brothel, roaring out his bawdy songs in praise of a good time, and suddenly he has thrown himself at the reins of a runaway horse to save some child he has never seen before; his bones broken; he dies at peace.
PROMOTER. But he dies like an animal, without a priest, in the full damnation of sin.
JOAN. No, my Lord. He dies in the light which was lighted within him when the world began. He behaved as a man, in doing evil and doing good, and G-d created him in that contradiction to make his difficult way.
—
I’m a huge fan of every Anouilh adaptation I’ve read thus far and revisiting this one never fails to make me go absolutely fucking insane! Every day I wake up and I think about “But when something is black I cannot say it is white. That is all.” I just love this play very much and I especially love how it’s structured, allowing for it all to bleed together and figures of the past to interact with the judges (the stage direction revealing the shame Joan’s father feels when he realizes the judges can see him beating her, even though, obviously, they can’t, was a particularly cutting way to establish this) and that conclusion.......Joan Of Arc: A Story Which Ends Happily.