The Lark (play)

The Lark (French: L'Alouette) is a 1952 play about Joan of Arc by the French playwright Jean Anouilh. It was presented on Broadway in English in 1955, starring Julie Harris as Joan and Boris Karloff as Pierre Cauchon. It was produced by Kermit Bloomgarden. Lillian Hellman made the English adaptation and Leonard Bernstein composed the incidental music. The two stars of the play reprised their roles in a 1957 television production of the play, as part of the anthology series Hallmark Hall of Fame. A different television adaptation aired in 1958 in Australia.[1] There is another English translation by Christopher Fry.

Plot summary

The play covers the trial, condemnation, and execution of Joan, but has a highly unusual ending. Joan remembers important events in her life as she is being questioned, and is subsequently condemned to death. However, Cauchon realizes, just as Joan is burning at the stake, that in her judges' hurry to condemn her, they have not allowed her to re-live the coronation of Charles VII of France. The fire is therefore extinguished, and Joan is given a reprieve. The actual end of the story is left in question, but Cauchon proclaims it a victory for Joan.

1958 Australian TV adaptation

The play was adapted for Australian TV in 1958.

Awards and honors

Original Broadway production
Year Award ceremony Category Nominee Result
1956 Tony Award Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play Boris Karloff Nominated
Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play Julie Harris Won
Best Director Joseph Anthony Nominated
Best Scenic Design Jo Mielziner Nominated
Best Costume Design Alvin Colt Nominated
gollark: Random thing: out of interest, I decided to run a bunch of game of life iterations on a 32*32 wrapping grid with half the initial cells alive. In several hundred runs, none got their cell count above the initial cell count.
gollark: 18:50:28.
gollark: Backup esobot.
gollark: Not that those exist, hopefully.
gollark: I don't know the secrets of selective applicative functional monadic monoids.

References
  1. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3492030/
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