The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1909-06-21
MAUDE ADAMS IDEA
OF "JOAN or ARC"
HOW THE STADIUM PERFORMANCE DIFFER FROM ANY
PREVIOUS ATTEMPT TO DRANATIzE OF FRANCE

ton of King Charles in the Cathedral
at Rheims and the huge battle scene
between the English and the French
outside the walls of Orleans-will be
rendered with all the gorgeousness. and
historical accuracy Of as beautiful q
pageant as money, good taste and in
telligence can obtain. There will be
1900 active participants IN the per
formance. This includes about 500 men
in armor on horseb back, monks. citizens
Omen and wcmen) mobiles, choir boys,
English and French infantry.
Joan will always appear, according 10
tradition, riding the only white hors
that VIII be seen upon the field, carry
ing aloft her ".Jhesus, Maria . banner.
According TO Schiller, the Maid Of
France never raised her sword. As the
leader of her country S army, Joan S
first appearance clad in armor, on the
cries of 1.-The Maid The Maid.' ut
tered by the thousand troops engaged
in the heat OF man-toman conflict.
That moment promises to be one of the
most magnificent in the performance.
In the midst of the din of battle and
the crowded warning of the medieval
army, Joan viii unexpectedly appear
upon the ridge of HILL on her white
horse, and as suddenly and as uneX-
contending forces, aud by her very
presence, waving her banner aloft,
break the back Of the English defense
and lead her countrymcn in m assault
upon the walls of Orleans, which they
recapture bv Il supreme effort, and
thereby achieve the great work Joan
set out TO do.
The death of The Maid in the Sta.
dunn performance will not, as in his.
tory, be the passive sacrifice of a mar
tyr at the stake, but the heroic ending
of n warrior on the battlefield. Ac-
cordiDg to Schiller, once Orleans was
retaken from the English, Joan is
wounded mortally, as In history she act.
ually was wounded severely, and, while
the soldiers of France are driving the
English from tho battlements of Or.
leans. The Maid is carried bleeding and
fatally wounded from tho battlefield by
her generals, They bring her TO a
spring, in the remote part of the field,
and there, breathing a blessing upon
France, upon her king whom her cour-
age has enthroned, and upon the green
helds of Domrcmy, which she is TO see
no more, she dies, Her funeral cortege.
hike Hamlet s, is upon the shields of
her chieftains. Her body is borne
from tho scene of her triumphs amid
the strains of the magnificent funeral
march IN Beethoven S symphony, Ero.
lea. -
From this it will readily be seen that
the very nature of the Stadium S per
formance calls for an equipment so
huge, made on such large scale. and
to be acted by artistic strokes Of such
vlgor and breadth, that dramatic spec
taclc on such a scale could not be done
in a modern theater.
TO the question-why the character
of Joan has never, up to the present
time, made a really vivid dramatic ap.
peal upon the stage. Maud Adams gives
the simplest of answers. Everybody
who has thus far attempted the task
Arc" alone-instcad of putting before
the public "Joan of Are set in the
explanatory and Illuminating life of
her time, Joan Of Are without the
environment of France of Joan Of Are S
time, is like 'FHamletN without Den.
mark. TO show the utter he!plessuess
of France into which Joan rode in 1929,
explains Joan Of Arc. the saviour OF
her country. A comprehensive dra-
matte representation of the weakling
King Charles VII, panic stricken, sur
rounded by traitors, futile in deed and
in thought, successfully only in disor-
ganlzlng his own forces, explains the
inspired leadership of Joan, and the
miraculous power that made it possible
for her to turn a retreating mob into
a victorious national army The clear
depletion by dramatic scenes of Joan s
wish, once her work was over, TO re-
turn TO her shepherd S flock at Dom.
remy, brings out Joan s humility as n
saint and common-sensed simplicity as
Il woman.
In point of thought and resources Law
ished upon it, and a complete reversal
of the usual dramatic way of handling
the subject, the Maude Adams perform
auce of ".Joan of Arc' in The Stadium
Will undoubtedly stand for many wears
as the high-water mark In this country
for the spectacularly' beautiful. the
historically true and the dramatically
vivid