The Cockpit Theatre: The Lark
I went to Marylebone’s Cockpit Theatre to watch Defiant Reality’s English/French bilingual adaptation of Jean Anouilh’s play ‘The Lark’, which centres on Joan of Arc.
I knew very little about Joan of Arc, the real-life figure who led the French military into battle after hearing voices urging her to rid France of its oppressors. Unsurprisingly, the establishment particularly the Catholic Church deemed her mad. The play starts with her courtroom trial and story is her retelling of the events leading up to her imprisonment.
The play slips between English and French, with the French parts subtitled on screens behind the performers. The tone is fairly light with certain characters playing it for laughs. The King is this story is played with upper-class, English buffoonery akin to Hugh Laurie’s Prince George in Blackadder. Joan is represented with whimsical, girlish charm, which shows both her naivety and the severity in which she is punished. Personally I would have liked a little more detail in the characters, particularly Joan. I wanted a hint at her darkness and confliction, which she must have been plagued with considering the gravity of her predicament.
The world portrayed is very male dominated, with the men tending to be morally bankrupt, deviant, corrupt and small minded. A nice touch is the ease with which Joan manages to get the better of them. This is shown notably in the scene where she negotiates with a sleazy landowner to get the horse she needs to lead the army into battle.
There are intermittent touches of the Shakespeare farces, with some characters reminiscent of the innuendo peddling jesters. The tone was very mixed and I felt it could have been more consistent as it never seemed sure if it was a comedy or a tragedy.
That said, this is a lively play that never drags, and the lighting and costumes are utilised well as the story builds to the climax.
This production moves to The Rose Playhouse from 21-31st January 2015.
Written by Martin Stocks | @Stocks1986
Read Martin’s comedic blog ‘How to Man-Manage your Manager in a job you hate.’
