Saint Joan - Programme, 1931
Title
Saint Joan - Programme, 1931
Date
2 November 1931
Description
Full programme for Saint Joan by Bernad Shaw, starring Sybil Thorndike in the title role.
What's the story?
This programme proudly claims …
Sybil Thorndike
In her Greatest Triumph
SAINT JOAN
This is not an exaggerated boast. Thorndike was a renowned classical actor and Shaw wrote the part of Joan especially for Thorndike, having first worked with her in 1908 when she understudied the leading role of Candida in a tour directed by Shaw himself.
Thorndike first played Joan in 1924 and both she and the play were a huge success. She continued to play the role until 1941. She was nearly 60 when she finished playing the role.
Thorndike’s husband Lewis Casson produced this 1931 production and in the same year, Thorndike was made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
According to a recent 2017 Telegraph article playing Saint Joan is considered the female equivalent to Hamlet.
From the same article …
‘TS Eliot, reviewing the original 1924 production, carped that Shaw had turned Joan of Arc “into a great middle-class reformer, and her place a little higher than Mrs Pankhurst”. Shaw accepted that his Joan was a proto-suffragette.’
Sybil Thorndike
In her Greatest Triumph
SAINT JOAN
This is not an exaggerated boast. Thorndike was a renowned classical actor and Shaw wrote the part of Joan especially for Thorndike, having first worked with her in 1908 when she understudied the leading role of Candida in a tour directed by Shaw himself.
Thorndike first played Joan in 1924 and both she and the play were a huge success. She continued to play the role until 1941. She was nearly 60 when she finished playing the role.
Thorndike’s husband Lewis Casson produced this 1931 production and in the same year, Thorndike was made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
According to a recent 2017 Telegraph article playing Saint Joan is considered the female equivalent to Hamlet.
From the same article …
‘TS Eliot, reviewing the original 1924 production, carped that Shaw had turned Joan of Arc “into a great middle-class reformer, and her place a little higher than Mrs Pankhurst”. Shaw accepted that his Joan was a proto-suffragette.’
Type
Programme
Location of item
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall Nottingham
Rights
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall Nottingham
Contributor
Researcher: David Longford
