DAME SYBIL THORNDIKE

Evening Star, Issue 21320, 26 January 1933, Page 4

DAME SYBIL THORNDIKE

SEASON AT HIS MAJESTY'S THEATRE A magnificent portrayal of the Maid of Orleans was given by Dame Sybil Thorndike in ‘ Saint Joan,’ G. Bernard Shaw’s play, at His Majesty’s Theatre last Only superlatives can describe Dame Sybil’s acting in this powerful play. Her dramatic acting in the Inquisition scene and in the ambulatory of Rheims Cathedral alter the coronation of the Dauphin will live long in the memory of the 3,000 who have seen the play in Dunedin. Air Lewis Casson was also extremely brilliant, particularly as the Bishop of Beauvais, and Mr Christopher Casson excelled as the Inquisitor. Exceptional ability was shown by Air .Michael Maftiu-Harvey as the Dauphin. He extracted every ounce of humour from his unusual role. The remainder of the big cast all gave highly satisfactory performances, making ‘ Saint Joan ’ one of the most memorable of plays. ‘ THE MEDEA ’ TO-NIGHT. To-night the company, in response to a number of requests, will give one performance of ‘ The Medea of Euripides,’ the famous Greek tragedy. In some respects, the most famous of the plays of Euripides, ‘ Medea ( represents tho Athenian dramatist at his most brilliant best. Taking up the story of Jason, the hero of tho Argonaut expedition, at a time when he has reached middle age, and has lost those qualities of romance which gave to the tale of the adventurers in Colchis an almost un-Greek flavour, ‘ Medea ’ has about it nothing of the lightness of the old Greek fable. The scene opens in Corinth, whither Jason and his wife, Medea, the barbarian princess whom he married in Colchis, have fled from tho land of Greece. Here Jason, now the practical, ambitious man of affairs, decides that his alliance with Medea lias become a hindrance to him, and he determines to marry the daughter of Creon, the King of Corinth. Mad with jealousy when she learns of the intrigue, Medea gives herself up to thoughts of vengeance. By the aid of her powers of screen she delivers Creou and his daughter to a frightful death, and, after slaying her own children in a passion of hatred of her husband, she escapes in a chariot drawn by dragons, hurling as she goes curses and imprecations on the head of tho grief-stricken Jasoil. But ‘ Medea ’ is more than a tale of injured wifehood and dramatic revenge. “ May I not live if the muses leave me,” Euripides had once prayed, and till the last of his days he_ graced his works with lyrics of surpassing beauty. ‘ Medea ’ is no exception to the rule, and in such choruses as ‘ My Thoughts Have Roamed a Cloudy Land ’ he relieves the grim tragedy of the play with bursts of poetry as exquisite as any in the human language. Like so many of the Greek masterpieces, ‘ Medea 1 .is concerned with the “ lachrimae rorunl,” but, as interpreted by Dame Sybil Thorndike and her company, it should give those fortunate enough to see it, some insight into the Greek mind and with it some appreciation of the beauty of thought and expression which took shape by the shores of the FEgean 2,500 j’ears ago.