Customer Reviews

The Lady's Not For Burning.

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My first introduction to this play was catching a production starring Richard Chamberlain on PBS many years ago. It was literate, sophisticated and witty and I fell in love with it immediate. Since then I have always talked about "The Lady's Not For Burning" as the best Shakespeare play not written by Shakespeare. Why? First, because it makes people stop and pay attention to what I am saying. Second, because if they actually read the play or see it performed they are going to be forced to agree you are pretty near the mark. Christopher Fry is not only a poet, but also a wit, to whom words are beautiful playthings.

First produced in 1948, "The Lady's Not for Burning" is set in a room in the house of Hebble Tyson, Mayor of the small market-town of Cool Clary, "more or less or exactly in the year 1400." The story involves Thomas Mendip, a discharged soldier, and Jennet Jordemayne, daughter of a recently deceased alchemist. The disappearance of Matthew Skips has the town in an uproar and although Thomas claims credit for the deep and demands to be hung immediately, it is Jennet who is accused of witchcraft and may well be burned at the stake. He wants to die, but no one will kill him, while her life is in danger and she wants to live. Of course, the pair will fall in love, in dialogue that represents the most dazzling verbal invention since, well, Shakespeare. Particularly enjoyable is Jennet's soliloquy on how her father managed to turn lead into gold:

"In the pursuit of alchemy.
In refusing to accept the dictum 'It is
What it is.' Poor father. In the end he walked
In Science like the densest night. And yet
He was greatly gifted.
When he was born he gave an algebraic
Cry; at one glance measured the cubic content
Of that ivory cone his mother's breast
And multiplied his appetite by five.
So he matured by a progression, gained
Experience by correlation, expanded
Into marriage by contraction, and by
Certain physical dynamics
Formulated me. And on he went
Still deeper into the calculating twilight
Under the twinkling of five-pointed figures
Till Truth became the sum of sums
And Death the long division. My poor father.
What years and powers he wasted.
He thought he could change the matter of the world
From the poles to the simultaneous equator
By strange experiment and by describing
Numerical parabolas."

"The Lady's Not For Burning" is a play that has actually improved over the years because Christopher Fry never stopped tinkering with it. If you view the 1995 Yorkshire Television production with Kenneth Branagh and Cherie Lunghi, you will notice the improvement of the second act scene between Thomas and Jennet. I have enjoyed this play in all its myriad manifestations and when I finally had an opportunity to direct any play that I might choose, Christopher Fry's masterpiece was my immediate choice. Share this play with everyone you know who loves intelligent, well-written drama and they may well thank you for it.

This play is so neglected these days! The Lady's Not for Burning is a wonderful rural-social-fantasy in which 'the costumes are as much 14-century as anything else'. Thomas Mendip is a world-weary soldier fed up with living who wanders into a small medieval town determined to get hanged. He swears he's the devil, 'he who sings solo bass in Hell's madrigal choir' (and who's voice should on no occasion be confused with that of a peacock!) and insists that the towns people hang him at once. The only problem is that the town is in a right flap over another supernatural phenomenon, that of Jennet Jourdemayne, the ravishing, solitary daughter of a deceased alchemist who tinkers with her father's chemistry equipment, talks french to her poodle and dines with her pet peacock on Sundays. The old adage that unconventional, independent women got burned at the stake rings true in this comical drama, as the townspeople are convinced that Jennet is a witch and are hammering on the mayor's door insisting that she be tindered. All very inconvenient, when you consider that young Alizon Elliot is arriving from the nunnery to meet her betrothed: slow, uninspiring Humphry, son of the Mayor - who is currently being petitioned by Thomas for a sentence and hanging.

Things come to pass at a dance to welcome Alizon that night, where Thomas and Jennet pace it out, one wants to die, the other wishes to live, and the frivolous self-absorbed townspeople are making them both wait before they can discover their fates.

This play is an absolute gem, I've read before that Fry's images lack symmetry, but I find the description of a castle 'draughty as a tree' absolutely delightful. It's a bittersweet story about two reluctant lovers who find falling in love more complicated and inconvenient than anything else. But in the end, the 'pitshaft of love' is what saves one of them from life, and one of them from death. Jennet and Thomas's jaded romance is balanced by a subplot involving the young, foolish, all-consuming love that develops between our two orphans: Alizon and the mayor's servant, Richard. One of the reasons the play works so well is that one can recognise both predicaments tenderly from experience.

Fry's images and language are delightful, painfully tender, wickedly, deliciously funny, his characters are recognisable, some of them sufferable, some lovable. The language and approach is fresh, even at age 70, and the ending is just sumptuous, tying everything in just so. I long to see a production of this play, having only read it, even though the characters are already so alive. Bitter Thomas, Gentle Jennet, Pompous Hebble the Mayor, Insufferable Nicholas (he has three virtues, how many do you have?). I'd be roling in the isles, laughing and weeping at this tragic comedy that transcends any century.

I saw this play on Broadway in the 1950's, and was instantly captivated by it. Sadly, it seems to have been forgotten in recent decades. As the other reviewer mentioned, Fry makes language turn somersaults and cartwheels. How about this opening to Act Three where our (bored) hero says: "O tedium, tedium, tedium. The frenzied Ceremonial drumming of the humdrum! Where in this small-talking world can I find a longitude with no platitude?" Later, when love lights the way, he basks in the company of his new-found friend Jennet. But alas, she is to be burned as a witch. Can he thwart this vile conspiracy? The "bubble-mouthing, fog-blathering, chin-chuntering, chap-flapping, liturgical, turgidical base old man" mayor is of no help. Nor is the other-wordly priest who says "legal matters and so forth are Greek to me, except, of course, that I understand Greek."

But most touching is the romance between the office clerk Richard and Alizon, recently come from a convent. As they discover true love, she says "I love you as deeply as many years could make me. But less deeply than many years will make me." And later he observes that "happiness seems to be weeping in me, as I suppose it should, being newly born."

The play is sadly out-of-place compared with the slam-bam let's-get-in-the-sack mentality of most modern love stories. I still get tremendous pleasure from reading it aloud. I found a used copy, but it had some of the best scenes excised in pencil, like the one where Jennet recalls her father who, as an alchemist, was so highly absorbed in science and mathematics that "Truth became for him the sum of sums, and Death the long division." Then there is Thomas's perceptive observation on laughter which "is an irrelevancy which almost amounts to revelation."

This play more than any of Fry's other works struck a resonance in my innermost reaches. I hope others enjoy it too, so that it can come back to the modern stage.

This is my all-time favorite--books, plays, comedy, verse, etc.--perhaps even with considering Shakespeare. It is the greatest send-up ever of superstition & humbug, and bureaucracy, plus the requisite human passions. A language feast indeed. Six stars out of five. Thomas Mendip is my all-time favorite role & formerly an alter-ego. I played Humphrey Devize at Oak Ridge Playhouse opposite Thomas, and would still give an arm & a leg, even a rib to do the role of Thomas. People have heard of LNFB!

It is a pleasure to read this play with its marvellous language and engaging characters, even in the smaller roles. I have been fortunate to hear the audio version of the original stage performance starring JOhn Gielgud, Pamela Brown, and Richard Burton many times. In the 1970s, I saw a very good television production of Lady's Not For Burning which starred Richard Chamberlin and Kristoffer Tabori, amongst others. Just a couple of years ago, I saw yet another television version of this wonderful play starring Kenneth Branagh, who seems to me to be the rightful heir to the great British actors John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier. Indeed, I feel that there may be a conscious effort on Mr. Branagh's part to perform roles taken by the preceding generations' great actors. Recently I saw a documentary on Communisim on CNN, narrated by Mr. Branagh. It reminded me of the World at War series which Laurence Olivier narrated in the early 1970s, and which is still broadcast somewhere on public television. Returning, however, to The Lady's Not for Burning, one can easily see why any good actors would want to appear in this terrific play. If the text is not cut too drastically because of time slot contraints, which seems often to be the case, it is a thoroughly enjoyable event.

This play is absolutely brilliant - not necessarily for the plot, but for the sheer exuberance of the language in which it is written. The cast of characters includes everything you could wish for -- a disillusioned hero, a beautiful heroine who's not quite in distress, a pair of star-crossed lovers, a few clowns, and a loveable if maudlin priest and his violin. This has to be one of the funniest plays *on paper* that I have ever read, and the sheer joy of the language, as well as the beauty of the simple plot, keeps me re-reading. I consider this Fry's best play -- if you can't come up with a copy on paper there is a bbc version available which was adapted by Fry himself and stars Kenneth Branagh. I cannot recommend this play enough.

It's 14th Century England and Thomas Mendip is tired of the world. He just wants someone to hang him so he can leave this life for good. He keeps telling people that he's the devil himself and the only way to send him back to Hell is to kill him. But the village leaders have bigger problems to worry about. The daughter of a local deceased alchemist, Jennet Jourdemayne, is certifiably insane and the townfolk think she might be a resident witch. It doesn't help that on the day that Thomas begs to be hanged, the beautiful Alizon Elliot is arriving to greet the son of the mayor to whom she is engaged. Thomas and Jennet are forgotten while the preparations for Alizon's arrival take place and that night during a ball for Alizon, Thomas and Jennet meet. The fates collide and they fall in love. But Jennet's supposed to be hung. What is a devil to do?

THE LADY'S NOT FOR BURNING is hilarious, but the comedy takes a backseat to the witty wordplay. The characters are secondary performers and the real star of the show is the language. One would probably assume that THE LADY'S NOT FOR BURNING was a product of the English Renaissance, perhaps even a missing play written by Shakespeare himself. But it's just good ole Christopher Fry's twentieth-century version of a Shakespearean-type comedy written in grand form.

Not everyone will enjoy reading THE LADY'S NOT FOR BURNING as the delightful language might be too much for some to understand. However, if you like Shakespearean comedy or just have a love for the English language, then THE LADY'S NOT FOR BURNING might be something worth your reading.

If you haven't seen either version of this incredible, verbal banquet of a play, hurry! There was a version made in 1974 with Richard Chamberlain, that was simply delightful (and that I can't seem to find a copy of), and there is another one, made by the redoubtable Kenneth Branagh, in the 80's. Even if you don't see the video, READ THIS PLAY!!!! The language alone is a linguist's dream. The play is fun, touching, flamboyant, and yet oddly understated and exquisitely clever! What an amazing work of art.

This is not to say a thing against either of the two TV two versions of this play, which I saw and loved, but to say that when I first heard the play it was on a recording with the voices of John Gielgud, Penelope Browne, and Richard Burton.

I thought I had never heard words spoken by human voices that was so alluring they were close to opera. Hearing them was like getting drunk on words. I can't find that audio tape now that I used to copy the library recording, and I wonder if there is any way of tracing that performance and getting another copy? I remember Gielgud's way of expressing tedium of the party that was to mark the last night of his life and Jennet's. "Tedi-UM, Tedi-UM, Tedi-Um, on a falling scale, or naming the party "ice bath of pleasure." Yet he was in love and bordering on desperate when he told Jennet that when she had rejected him after a brief pause: "I'll chalk that hesitation all over the walls of Hell."
And about the future, which they didn't think they had: "I can give you generations of roses, here, in this wrinkled belly," He murmured, putting a rose hip in her palm. Wonderful, indeed.

I had the pleasure of seeing John Gielgud and Pamela Brown in "The Lady's Not For Burning" when I was teen-ager. It has been a pleasure to relive the joys of this delightful play once again.