HENRI-RENE LENORMAND’S THE COWARD (LE LÂCHE)

Henri-Rene Lenormand (1882-1951) was born in Paris, France. He began writing The Coward in 1914 and completed it in 1918. He was a soldier during the early years of World War One, however he received a medical discharge. Lenormand spent the remainder of the war in a Swiss sanatorium. The Coward is considered by some scholars to be a personal work in which Lenormand attempted to “exorcize his own problems.” It was believed that Lenormand was a malingerer.

                                                        

                                                         HENRI-RENE LENORMAND

The Coward is a play in four acts and ten tableaux (scenes). The first six tableaux are set in a Swiss mountain resort that is being used as a convalescent facility. The play takes place during the years of World War One.  Lenormand’s protagonist’s (Jacques) behavior is subconsciously motivated by his guilt for being a coward. The Coward is one of France’s earliest psychological dramas.

Act One, tableau 1 takes place on the sun-terrace of a hotel in Selvas, Switzerland. There is a lot of snow on the ground; however, the invalids, in fur bags, are lying in the open air on deck chairs. Jacques enters with his wife Therese. He is a French artist, thirty-two years old, who believes he is suffering with consumption. He did not pass his army medical examination.  Therese spends time with him every day. The patients discuss their doctors, each other and the war.

Tableau 2 is set on a different sun terrace.  It is four o’clock on a January afternoon. The patients are considering when “America is going to declare war on Germany.” (This could denote that it is 1917, it was in April of that year when the USA declared war on Germany.) The Professor (a German, aged fifty) who is also staying at the hotel, begins to discuss Jacques with some of the other patients. They snub Jacques when he arrives.  Therese tries to convince Jacque to change hotels, but he will not.

Tableau 3 takes place on “A snow covered mound at an altitude of 2,000 meters.” Jacques and Therese are alone and dressed in furs. They are lying on a rug.  Jacques shares his recurring nightmare of being threatened by a French soldier.

 Act Two, tableau 4 is set in a small three-cornered salon of the hotel.  The characters discuss Jacques, the weather and various remedies.

Tableau 5 is in the same salon. The original occupants leave the room after discussing the fête planned for that evening as well as each other. Therese and Jacques enter the empty room. Jacques shares with Therese that he is afraid to attend the fête.

Tableau 6 is in a windowless drawing-room with crimson hangings in a different Selvas hotel. It is the fête and all the guests are dressed in formal attire. The time is near dawn. Most of the guests of various nationalities including Jacques and Therese leave. Charlier from Paris is a twenty-eight year old patient, who is really a malingerer.  He is a recruiter of spies for France. Charlier meets with “The Individual” when everyone else leaves the room. The Individual is interested in Jacques and he wants Charlier to recruit him for a secret mission. 

Act III, tableau 7 is set in Jacques’s bedroom. It is ten o’clock on a gray morning and Jacques is reading in bed. Therese arrives and they discuss that consumption is “practically unknown” in this region. Jacques finally consents to consult a doctor.

Tableau 8. Same bedroom at nine o’clock in the evening. Guns of war can be heard from afar. A new Doctor examines Jacques and confirms his illness is consumption. He suggests that Jacques move to his sanatorium. After both the Doctor and Therese have left for the evening, Charlier comes to visit Jacques.  The purpose of his visit is to recruit Jacques to spy on “The Professor”.

Tableau 9 takes place in The Professor’s room in the same facility. Jacques is there to steal some documents. The Professor suspects Jacques intentions and confronts him after Jacques pockets several papers. Jacques is afraid and agrees to collaborate with him for the Germans.

Act IV, tableau 10.  The promenade by the lake in front of the villa where Jacque and Therese are currently living. Charlier meets “The Man in Gray”, who was disguised as “The Individual” in an earlier scene. The Man in Gray is here to nab Jacques because he collaborated with the Professor. The results of Jacques German collaboration caused two French agents to be caught and secret documents to be seized. Jacques meets these two men and leaves his villa with them unaware of his fate.

The Coward premiered December 1, 1925 at Le Théâtre des Arts in Paris and played for eight performances before it was cancelled.  Paris audiences took umbrage with the play’s premise that some young Frenchmen were cowardly. However, The Coward gained an international reputation as it was staged in Berlin, Vienna as well as opening in London on July 26, 1926. It was staged at the Scala Theatre for a one week run.

The Theatre Guild in New York City purchased the rights to stage The Coward in the summer of 1929. Several years earlier the Theatre Guild had produced another play by Lenormand, titled The Failures. The Coward was eventually staged at the Westport Country Playhouse in July, 1935. This regional summer theatre in Westport, Connecticut was founded by Lawrence Langner (1890-1962) who was also the founder of the Theatre Guild. The summer production was directed by Worthington Miner (1900-1982) and featured Frances Fuller (1907-1980) as Therese.

I read several reviews of this summer theatre production that were particularly favorable to the play. It was thought that the play was not Broadway material, but it was considered “an interesting play.” The basis for this opinion is that The Coward is more than a spy thriller and more than a psychological study of a single individual. The Coward also portrays several of the behind the scenes war activities that were practiced by French, German and British nationals in neutral Switzerland during WWI. 

NOTE: The English translation that I read of this play is in TWENTIETH CENTURY PLAYS.
             Edited by Chandler, Frank W. and Cordell, Richard A.  
             New York: Thomas Nelson &  Sons, 1934.

G. B. SHAW’S HEARTBREAK HOUSE

There was an article in London’s Observer on September 28, 1919 that captured what George Bernard Shaw’s newest published play could achieve.

‘Heartbreak House,’ Mr. Shaw writes in his preface, ‘is cultured, leisured Europe

 before the war,’ and the play, which is much better than the preface, fits that

 description very neatly.  It is his thirty-first play, and I am near in mind to call

 it his best play.  It certainly is the most bitter and wildly comic piece he has

 composed. When, in due time, it is performed, it will, I am sure, fill the theatre

 with explosions of laughter as loud as the explosions of the bombs with which

 the piece concludes.

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) wrote Heartbreak House between March 4, 1916 and May 1917. His subtitle for this play is “A Fantasia in the Russian Manner on English Themes.” Shaw admired Anton Chekov and utilized the country house setting for his play as did the Russian playwright. Shaw also desired to utilize similar character shortcomings employed by Chekov such as a character’s inability to achieve a desired goal as well as to hold a realistic view of a situation.
                                                                                                            

                                                               GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

In June 1919, Shaw wrote the preface for Heartbreak House just prior to its publication. His earlier political pamphlet (November 1914) titled “Common Sense About War” was controversial. His antiwar speeches were met with criticism. His next approach was to reveal his feelings about how the conditions leading to World War One were overlooked by the British cultured and governing classes partially due to their laxed attitudes about the world situation. These are the classes to which Shaw’s major Heartbreak House characters belong. Shaw presents this serious situation embedded in one of the most humorous plays written in the English language.

Act One takes place “on a fine evening at the end of September.” The time is six o’clock. The location is in the middle of northern Sussex. The countryside can be seen through the windows of a room “which has been built so as to resemble the after part of an old fashion high-pooped ship, with a stern gallery.” This home belongs to an old sea captain named Captain Shotover, who is the father of Hesione Hushabye and Lady Utterword. The latter daughter lives in Australia. Hesione has invited as her dinner guests young Ellie Dunn, her father and his employer Boss Mangan, who is engaged to Ellie. Hesione does not believe Ellie should marry Mangan who is much too old for her. Chaos ensues when Lady Utterwood arrives after not visiting her family for decades.

Act II is set after dinner that same evening. The setting is the same room as Act One. The act opens with a scene between Ellie and Mangan discussing their future marriage. Ellie is determined to marry Mangan even though each one is smitten with someone else. Mangan is in love with Hesione and Ellie is enamored with Mr. Hushabye, Hesione’s husband. After everyone drifts on stage, there is a commotion and a burglar is discovered in one of the bedrooms stealing jewelry.  Ellie’s father captures the burglar who is recognized by Captain Shotover and Nurse Guinness. None of the characters are what they each appear to be in the beginning, the burglar was once married to Nurse Guinness and had sailed with Captain Shotover. At the conclusion of the act, several of the male/female relationships have been altered and new alliances are forming.

Act Three is set in the garden. It is later that evening. The characters are enjoying the outdoor environment as well as their new pairings when “A dull distant explosion is heard.” The planes come closer and bombs are dropped in the garden. One bomb explodes in the area where Captain Shotover stores his dynamite. Unfortunately, Boss Mangan and the Burglar were hiding there. The play ends as Hesione states: “What a glorious experience!  I hope they’ll come again tomorrow night.”

Heartbreak House premiered in New York City on November 10, 1920 and it was produced by The Theatre Guild at the Garrick Theatre. The production was staged by Dudley Digges (1879-1947) who was born in Dublin and immigrated to the United States in 1904. He also played the role of Boss Mangan. This production was successful and ran for 125 performances.  All the New York reviews of this production were extremely positive.

Since its New York premier Heartbreak House has had four major revivals on Broadway—1938, 1959-60, 1983-84, and 2006.  It has had hundreds of productions in cities throughout the United States and it continues to this day to garner laughs as the actors usually dressed in their flapper era attire cavort on stage.

The second production of Heartbreak House opened at the Burg Theatre in Vienna on November 17, 1920.  I read an interesting account of the first night audience’s reaction to the drama.  It appeared in London’s Daily Herald on November 18, 1920 and was signed by Reuter. “The first act was applauded, but afterward the interest of the audience dwindled, and the later acts were hissed.” Reuter believed the irony of the play was apparently unappreciated or not understood.  Perhaps the length of the play also contributed to the lack of enthusiasm. In New York the Theatre Guild’s production ran nearly five hours before the final curtain.

The third international production opened in Stockholm before Heartbreak House was staged at the Court Theatre in London, where it opened on October 18, 1921.  The November 17, 1921 London Daily Herald ran an article titled “Brilliant Play Receives Inadequate Support.”  “Heartbreak House regarded by sound judges as one of Shaw’s best plays, is by no means drawing record houses and the end of the run appears to be in sight.”  This production had a run of only seven weeks.

However, Heartbreak House, did become a popular play in England after its initial run and it has 

had many productions in Great Britain over the past ninety-seven years. Worldwide, it may be 

the most produced play from this period.







PHOTO: taken from cover of reprinted copy of HEARTBREAK HOUSE that I read.  There was no
acknowledgement of source.

C.K. MUNRO’S THE RUMOUR

C. K. Munro (1889-1973) had two plays Wanderers (1915) and At Mrs. Bream’s (1921) successfully staged by London’s Stage Society (1899-1939). This group produced new and experimental plays with artistic merit.  Many of the plays produced by this organization were later successful in London’s commercial West End theatres. C. K. Munro was fortunate that this group recognized the merit of his early works. 

During this period of initial recognition as a playwright, Munro kept his day job as a Civil Servant in the Ministry of Labour. He eventually rose to the position of Under-Secretary at the British Ministry of Labour and National Service. Munro was born in Ulster, Ireland and educated at Cambridge. His surname was MacMullan, but he wrote under the name of Munro which was his grandmother’s maiden name. 

World War One had interrupted Munro’s playwriting career. After its Stage Society’s debut, At Mrs. Bream’s quickly became a commercial success in London and towns throughout the country as well as in New York when staged by the Theatre Guild, 1926.  His next play The Rumour is very different in style from his earlier plays. It is a serious piece concerned with the political, social and ethical problems of the era following the war. It has one-dimensional characters who work to manipulate each other. Their endeavors illustrate that war does not breakout spontaneously, but it is contrived by individuals who have a monetary interest in the resources controlled by another nation. The play is experimental in format and was frequently dubbed expressionistic. It borrows from expressionism, but it has its own individual style.

 The Rumour was staged in December, 1922 by the Stage Society. The Times (London) reviewer stated: “it is a clever piece of satire swamped by political oratory.” Later in the review he singled out young Claude Raines (1889-1967) for kudos. 

The Rumour was considered worthy of publication in 1923 by W. Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. of London.  A. Knopf of New York, in 1924, published another book edition of The Rumour. It was included in another publication titled Three Plays. By C.K. Munro. Victor Gollancz, Ltd. London: 1932.

The Rumour, a satire on international politics is designated by the playwright as “A Play in Two Parts.”  However, there is also a Prologue and an Epilogue. These two framing scenes are set in the London home of a man named Luke, who has major interest in financial operations in two small European countries—Przimia and Loria.  Luke’s greed is the trigger that sets the action of the play in motion, but he only appears in these two scenes.  This is a long play with many scenes and about fifty characters.  Part I, Act I has four scenes, Part I, Act II contains four scenes. Part II, Act I has three scenes while Part II, Act II also contains three scenes. 

The plot commences when a British diplomat in Przimia spreads a rumor that the poorer neighboring country of Loria is planning to start a war with Przimia in order to recover a territory taken from it fifty years before.  Many Lorians work in Przimia since they are less expensive laborers.  The impending war rumor accelerates when the daughter of a British workman is killed accidentally by a stray bullet while she is attending a meeting in Przimia with her Lorian boyfriend. This incident is magnified in the British press and a war ensues in which both small countries lose.  The peace treaties advantage the British and French business interests.  Munro used “England” and “France” to represent any powerful modern governments—he did not intend them to be specific references.

The Rumour is a script characterized by many, long speeches and lots of characters, but it clearly delineates the insincerity of political and diplomatic discussion because the outcome is determined long before the war begins. The two powerful countries support the outcome desired by their own rich commercial financiers. Munro wanted to delineate a realistic view of the world as it emerged following World War One.

The Rumour received a second major staging opportunity by Terence Gray in 1927 at the Festival Theatre in Cambridge, England.  This theatre founded in 1926 was experimental rather than following the more conventional West End theatres. Gray produced plays to provoke unexpected and unanticipated audience reactions. He wanted the plays to portray a readjustment of the accepted values to his audiences.  This production featured a young Maurice Evans (1901-1989) as the Honorable Algernon Moodie, British Attaché in Przimiprzak.

The Rumour eventually was successfully staged at the Court Theatre, London, opening during February, 1929 and it ran for sixty-seven performances. The cast included Jessica Tandy (1909-1994) in her first West End production.  The success at the Court helped to spread interest in this play throughout the United Kingdom. Also the script was reworked and shortened by the Court Theatre Company.  Numerous local productions of The Rumour were staged throughout Great Britain during the 1930s.  It was also adapted into a one hour radio play and broadcast on the National “wave” throughout 1930 and 1931. 

Another production of The Rumour was mounted in early 1930 by the English Players headed by Edward Stirling (1891-1948). This company toured Munro’s play to Frankfurt, Germany and Vienna, Austria. 

This is an unusual play with a topic that is still relevant.  It is worth one’s time to read The Rumour.