The Lady's Not for Burning

Fry wrote this in the aftermath of world war II and this production was made as the US left Vietnam. In these post Iraq days it needs to be re-released, as it catches the best and worst of humanity in a single play. There are other versions, but they miss the ache and reality that this production brings forth.

If you can see it, do so.

Our hero is war weary, our lady is an educated woman who speaks French to her poodle and kept a peacock whose cries terrified one of the serving girls such that she was sure it was the Devil himself.. Our hero wishes to die, our lady's wish is to live, and they meet in a justice's home on a memorable spring day.

Take a world-weary mercenary, and throw him into a household of mayor-uncle, convention-bound mom, two lusty, empty-headed sons, a servant, a naive girl just out of the convent and an accused witch about to be burned, put them in a setting of about 1400 AD and stir, and you get this wonderful work.

The elegant poetic language carved its way into a romantic nineteen year old's brain when I first saw this. Later versions just fall flat compared to this performance, partly because so much text was cut out of the later version I saw (a movie with Kenneth Branagh in it) that it lost its internal rhythm (yes, I READ too, and actually read the play later.) Oh, for it to be released on video or DVD!!!

Even though it has been thirty years, I remember this well, as do my mother and sister. I probably saw it a dozen times over it's KCET run, every time we knew it was going to be on, and loved every showing.

So many in the cast are favorites of mine that I'll refrain from going into each performance, except to say that the casting was excellent all around. Growing up in Los Angeles I was fortunate to see Richard Chamberlain on stage several times, and never better than he was in this role. Kristoffer Tabori stood out as well, as he has done so consistently throughout his career.

If you have the opportunity to see this, DO NOT MISS IT. You will not be sorry.

Message to KCET: PLEASE RELEASE THIS ON VHS/DVD!!!!!

I saw this performance on PBS many years ago, taped it, and watched it again several times before I lost the tape by lending it to a "friend." Chamberlain's performance is transcendent, and that's not a word I use very often. He convinced me that he is one of America's greatest actors, one of the few who is comfortable with lyrical, poetic language, such as Fry's, and who is totally convincing as a romantic lead. Eileen Adkins is perfect as the cynical Jennet, possible the equal of Pamela Brown who was closely identified with the role. This film needs to be released on DVD so that a new generation can discover the drama of Christopher Fry and see Chamberlain at his best.

One of the great poetic drama works of the 20th century, this has been televised three times; in 1954 with Christopher Plummer, Richard Burton(from the original Broadway cast that starred John Gielgud)and Mary Ure, this version and a later one. Would that this one could be on DVD. Fry has been trying to get this one done again definitively. It is known for the paraphrase Margaret Thatcher made of it when she said, "The lady's not for turning!" Set on a sunny rainy afternoon,and evening in the Middle Ages,the play is a whimsical-serious parable of the aftershock of World War Two, the meeting of a soldier wanting to end it all and a lovely young woman accused of witchcraft and sentenced to burning. It's for people who love language and the interplay of rich comic characters (the townspeople are hysterical).