PAUL RAYNAL’S THE UNKNOWN WARRIOR (Le Tombeau Sous L’Arc de Triomphe)

 

The French title of Paul Raynal’s 1924 play refers to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier which was created in Paris in1920. It is the grave for a World War One Unknown French Soldier located beneath L’Arc de Triomphe. The French monument created an interest in other countries to dedicate a similar single national site to commemorate a nation’s unknown military dead, whose identities are “known but to God.”

Raynal (1885-1971) served as a soldier of France for four years during World War I in Champagne and in the French Army of the Orient. This special French unit was created in October 1915 after the allies lost the Dardanelles Campaign. His military experience fueled Raynal with the desire to write a trilogy of plays about World War One. The Unknown Warrior written in 1923-24 is the first of these plays.  It was followed by La Francerie, a three act play that was performed in 1933 at the Comedie-Francise in Paris. The third play, written in 1935, is titled Le Materiel humain. It was staged after World War II. This third play was not a theatrical success; however, it was published in 1946.

The Unknown Warrior is a tragedy in three acts.  Act I consist of five scenes. Acts II and III have one scene each.  The cast is composed of three characters. The French Soldier wears “the regulation uniform of an infantry regiment without any badges or distinguishing marks, save a number on the collar.” His Father, who is not described, and “Aude, a girl of twenty,” who is the Soldier’s fiancée. At the opening of Act One, Aude and the Father are awaiting the arrival of The Soldier for his first visit home. Aude has not seen him in fourteen months and eight days.  They plan to get married during his four-hour visit. The date is October 8, 1915, and the time is 2 A.M. “The setting is a house in the country, a day’s journey from Paris.”

Over the course of the Soldier’s brief visit, the reader is exposed to how the war is overshadowing his youth, his love, and his life.  Each one of the characters represents a point of view regarding war. This places the Soldier in conflict with his patriotic father who does not realize the hard realities of the current war. His relationship with Aude is not as solid as he hoped. She held the romantic idea of being attached to a soldier departing to the Front. Additionally, the Soldier offered her the opportunity to move to his farm, away from Paris, where she would live more safely.

Upon the Soldier’s return home, Aude realizes his absence has dissolved her love for him. She gives herself to him even though the planned marriage ceremony never takes place. The Soldier is determined to live in the present during every moment of his home visit and he succeeds despite the difficulties the other two characters present.  The Soldier was granted this four-hour home visit since he volunteered for a dangerous assignment which is believed by his Commanding Officers to lead to certain death.

The focus of the play is on the Soldier. It shows the issues that soldiers must face to survive on the battlefield.  The attitude of the soldier is one of endurance. Throughout the play the Soldier raises the question “what is war?” and there are multiple answers—War is drudgery. War is uncertainty. War is the anguish of waiting. War is learning how to accept bad news. War is the faith that something positive is to evolve from all the sacrifice. These are several of the insights.

The Unknown Warrior was premiered on January 30, 1924 at the Paris National Theatre, the Comedie-Francaise. Not every critic was positive about this play following its initial performances. Some critics believed it was critical and disrespectful of the common French soldier, but these points were eventually dismissed.  The play was revived in 1929 at the Theatre de l’Odeon, Paris.

The Unknown Warrior was first performed in England in 1924 at London’s Arts Theatre Club, but it was not published in English until 1928.  The translation was done by Cecil Lewis (1898-1997) who was an ace English pilot during WWI as well as one of the founders of the British Broadcasting Company (BBC). These are but two among several other interesting activities that bear his name. Lewis’s translation of The Unknown Warrior had ten editions in its first year of publication.

After its Paris premier, Raynal’s play quickly attained popularity throughout Europe. During the years between the two World Wars, it was staged in Berlin, Stockholm, Vienna, Moscow, and many other continental cities.  The American production opened on Broadway the evening of October 29,1928. The cast consisted of Tyrone Power, Senior (1869-1931) as the Father, Beatrix Thomson (1900-1936) played Aude and Lester Vail (1899-1959) A French Soldier.  The production was staged by Charles Hopkins (1884-1953) who also owned and operated the theatre. The production was produced by arrangement with Arts Theatre.  It closed in November 1928. It received mixed newspaper reviews.

Maurice Browne (1881-1955) a theatre producer born in England, brought his 1931 production of The Unknown Warrior to open in New York City before touring Pacific coast cities.  He had several motivations for doing this including his deep belief in the play and his desire to play the leading role of The Soldier. The tour started with four performances on Broadway at the Morosco Theatre.  It opened October 22,1931 and closed October 31^st. Other cast members included Rosalinde Fuller (1892-1982) as Aude and Daniel Reed (?) as the Father.

The next major production occurred when BBC Television presented a live performance of this play on November 11, 1951. Arthur Wontner (1875-1960) played The Father, Isabel Dean (1918-1977) Aude and Peter Neil (1913-1994) The Soldier. This performance was to commemorate the armistice that ended World War One.

There was a production of The Unknown Warrior planned for November, 2021 at the Finborough Theatre in London to mark the centenary of the burials of the unknown warriors in France and England. Unfortunately this production was cancelled due to the Covid epidemic.

Along with Journey’s End, The Unknown Warrior is considered by many critics and scholars as one of the finest pieces of dramatic literature resulting from World War One.

WINGS OVER EUROPE: A DRAMATIC EXTRAVAGANZA ON A PRESSING THEME

Post 6 titled “PARSING WORLD WAR ONE PLAYS CONTINUED” has a paragraph relating to Wings Over Europe written by Robert Nichols (1893-1944) and Maurice Browne (1881-1955). A few days after I finished writing the post, I began reading a novel that related to work on early atomic physics projects. That novel recommended a nonfiction account of the trail leading to the splitting of the atom. I was interested in the history of the discovery and wondered how The Fly in the Cathedral by Brian Cathcart might relate to Wings Over Europe even though it is the first dramatic work with a plot related to the atom. Towards the end of “The Fly” Cathcart referred to the play and I was inspired to reread it.

I appreciate this play significantly more since I have a bit of knowledge about the actual scientific progress related to splitting the atom. Also, I am intrigued by the timing of the play’s performances in England. Actually these two bits of information tie together. The play was premiered during the 1928-29 season in New York by The Theatre Guild. At this time, the play was considered to be science fiction. The public had little or no indication of the possible destructive power of atomic energy, since scientists had not discovered how to capture the energy in the atom. Wings Over Europe was considered to be an artistic success by the American press, but the reviews did not necessarily help the play succeed financially since it was a very expensive production with a large cast. The play’s cast consisted of eighteen males and the reviewers described the play as appealing primarily to the intellect. The play ran for ninety performances—a successful run in terms of length, and it was chosen as one of the ten best plays of the season. The Theatre Guild also scheduled the play to tour to ten different American cities east of the Mississippi River as part of its 1929-30 theatre series.

Wings Over Europe opened in London’s Globe theatre on April 27, 1932. Theatre advertisements tried to raise interest by informing the public the play was set in a true replica of the Cabinet Room at No. 10 Downing Street, London. While this ploy may have raised some interest in the play, real life events at Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge may have given the play more significance than its setting. British newspapers on May 1st ran headlines similar to the one in the Reynold’s Illustrated News announcing: “Science’s Greatest Discovery, The Atom Split at 100,000 Volts”. Suddenly Wings Over Europe became a prophetic work rather than science fiction. Cathcart mentions that the play and the scientific breakthrough became intertwined in the newspapers: the two scientists were credited with writing the play and the reverse also appeared in print. How this moment in science impacted the Globe Theatre’s attendance I do not know, but the fact that the play’s story coincided with a real life scientific discovery fascinates me. There were several questions that I had hoped to resolve for this post, but I could not access the necessary resources.

The two playwrights were each unusual in several ways. Robert Nichols, a Cambridge graduate, was an officer in the war and fought briefly in the trenches of France. He became a well-known, admired British World War One poet. His first poem, from the series titled Battle, is reputed to have been the most favorite. Its title is Noon. He had three volumes of war poems published by the conclusion of 1917.

Maurice Browne was born in Great Britain and educated at Cambridge, but he immigrated to the United States. In 1912, he became a producer when he founded the Chicago Little Theatre. This theatre and the Toy Theatre in Boston started in the same year are credited with inspiring the United States’ Little Theatre Movement. These theatre groups were small experimental centers of drama that were not competing with the large commercial theatres because they were doing plays by newer playwrights, such as Ibsen and Chekhov, whose plays were not being produced on Broadway. Browne stayed with the Chicago Little Theatre until 1917. For the next ten years, he produced plays in many other American cities that were just starting their Little Theatre companies. Browne returned to England in 1927 and in 1928 served as the producer of R.C. Sherriff’s blockbuster play Journey’s End. This was at the same time he was writing “Wings” and getting the Theatre Guild to produce it. In 1930, he purchased two major West End London theatres—the Globe and Queen’s. “Wings” was staged at the Globe theatre. There is another distinguishing credit that should be mentioned. In 1930 he produced Othello in London with Paul Robeson in the title role; Browne played Iago.

Nichols and Browne, who were not primarily playwrights or scientists, developed a play that looked at how a future war could be dominated by a new weapon that would change all the rules of warfare. Poison Gas had not been known as an instrument of destruction prior to World War One, but it became the most feared after it was used in 1915. Wings Over Europe provided an example of what the next weapon of mass destruction could be and its potential danger to all humankind. The play further demonstrates how those with governmental power would undoubtedly not be ready to cope with such a revolutionary discovery. They subtitled the play "A Dramatic Extravaganza”. Extravaganza was a style of theatre used to illustrate how an irrational situation may be carried to logical extremes. This play was far reaching in its concern about being prepared for a reality that had yet to be experienced.

If you have access to either London newspaper reviews about the play or the length of its run in London, please send the information to this blog.

Reference for Wings Over Europe photo: 
    Nadel, Norman. a pictorial history of the THEATRE GUILD. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1969. 80.