Theatre Design & Technology - Oct 1969 - 5

mto a procession, marching to the rhythm of the
drums. I had forgotten to mention that this time
the intervals had closed up to a point where now
it was just one continuous roll, with the result
that the audience was ... unaware of it. .. As the
crowd became more and more excited, the tumult
rose to the highest pitch, the drums kept pace.
The people were filling not only the streets but
all available roof lOpS, ledges, windows [These
architectural features are not part of the setting
and must have been implied by the actors' grouping]. Suddenly, a voice was heard faintly. It was
Jeanne as she felt the flames creep about her
and four times she repeated the name of her
Lord, "Jesu, Jesu, Jesu, Jesu." On the first
word the crowd hushed apparently. As far as the
audience is concerned there was no sound other
than the plaintive voice of the suffering Jeanne,
but suddenly on the first word "Jesu," the six
drums stopped. The effect was unprecedented. It
was as though the bottom had dropped out of
everything. Silence had become more silent. A
strange thing had been done 10 the audience
and they did not know how or why 5

We got it inlO a more rhythmic thing. It lOok
three minutes 10 do it. It was the same thing
with the voices. And the same thing with the
bells-It gradually dimmed out to this sound of
chain mail and sabres clashing, etc.' a metal
sound. All these things weren't on all at once-It was a transition of sound. The girl is terrified
and the light begins to vibrate; then she gives
her battle cry and runs down stage. The soldiers
form around her like a fortress. They form an absolute wall with their helmets and shields...We
had cannon balls, bumpers, eight trumpeters,
etc. to get brass into this thing. The contrasting
thing which you could only faintly hear were
two dozen little brass bells. These were her
theme. It gave the strangest sound-you couldn't
think what it was. At any rate, this battle starts
and the drum begins to count off these beats.
Every ten beats, a green light goes on, every
fifty beats, a red light goes on; it was completely
stylized. The battle was really exciting ...Jeanne's
costume was designed so that she makes a
rectangular cross. The trumpets cut in and the
beats get much stronger and the lights fluttering

In notes for a lecture given as part of his
design course in 1927, Geddes gives further
details of this effect, reiterating his theory
of the psychological use of sound in the
theatre:
Figure 2: Geddes' pencil sketches of properties assemblage to form altar for coronation scene (top) and arrangement of platforms for setting (bottom)

more and more as she loses her nerve. Real
lances apparently lifted her down where her
armor was torn off. They push her into this box
which has been brought on and the enemy, which
hasn't left the stage, take off their helmets and
fix these cowls on and sit in certain places and
the light comes up on the trial scene [Fig. 4].
She is thrown into this prison which is the opposite panel from the steps. In the last scene
one lone figure walks across the big empty stage.
There has never before in any scene been just
one person on the stage. Then two more and
then four more come in. The crowd was divided
into five parts-off stage left, on stage left, on
stage center, on stage right, off stage right. Word
passes from one actor to another, and they find
out that they have lit the fagots. The whole
scene was lit from one flickering light. It comes
over the scene and they are just awed-quite
terrified by now. You hear her five last words...
This beat which had been building up, gets
louder and louder. At the moment after the last
"Jesu," these sounds which were going at a terrific pace, suddenly stopped. It was a complete
silence because of the contrast. The silence
stopped-It was an amazing situation. I saw the
show twenty times and it never failed to have
that effect; the most weakening effect that you
can imagine.6

The emphasis upon action over dialogue is
strikingly apparent in Geddes' third revision
of Jeanne d'Arc prior to the production in
Paris; the occasional lines of dialogue are
interspersed among long sections, sometimes pages, of descriptions for the action
and effects. The entire script was indextabbed so that each action unit and its corresponding chart could be easily and quickly located (Figs. 5 and 6).
Geddes' manner of directing Jeanne d'Arc
can be determined from evidence of the
prompt scripts, contemporary reports of the
play in production, later testimony of the
individuals involved, and photographs of the
play. The success of his preoccupation with
the visual elements of the acting-movement, grouping, pictorial composition-is
amply supported by a comparison of the
photographs of the production with the corresponding action charts and the color renderings he had made of the scene prior to
production (Figs. 3, 6 and 7). It is evident
that Geddes was able to reproduce exactly
his planned stage pictures in production.
Geddes' approach to rehearsals can be determined by a study of some of the other
evidence. H is opening address was read
to the actors by Le Gallienne in French.
Parts of it are of particular interest:
The theatre is to me, always, only, and above all
the theatre. The stage is always the stage. A
play is, bv the Qrace of God, a play. And an
actor is an aClOr. I do not believe in trying to
make them anything other than what they are.
So in this production the story of Jeanne d'arc
is handled purely as a thing of the theatre. No
attempt is made to make of the stage an imitation of something else. The actor is invited to
drop the artificialities accumulated by convention
and project his ideas in the most direct terms.
The success of any play depends eventually upon
the actor and toward this end I have designed a
purely plastic stage structure for the action of
this play. The stage you will play on differs from
any you have been asked to use before. It is an
arrangement of levels so designed as 10 bring
you into the utmost relief at various emphatic
moments in the movement of the play. Upon this
single structure all of the scenes are played following each other with but a single intermission.
No scenery is used. The actor by what he wears
and carries establishes the locale. 7

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