Word: godly
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Since the days of the French Revolution, when fanatics proclaimed that they had dethroned God and placed Reason on the ramparts of heaven, Frenchmen have struggled over the deathbeds of famous men. Stories, some apocryphal and some authenticated, tell of the last moments of such famed skeptics as Aristide Briand, Paul Valéry, Voltaire and André Gide. Last week the battle was once more joined over the final hours on earth of Edouard Herriot, who had done as much as anyone to insist on the separation of church and state, and had fought tirelessly against church control...
Next morning, the King celebrated his birthday by attending service in Namirembe Cathedral, and listened thoughtfully to a sermon by Bishop Brown, which stressed that even Kings must obey God's commandments and Christ's teachings if they wish to be regarded as Christians. Canceling a ceremonial visit to Parliament because the British Resident, Anthony Richards, would be there (the King is constantly embroiled in quarrels with Britain as well as with his wife, his brother, and the Anglican Church), King Freddie went to a soccer game...
Miss Bel Geddes and Fonda turn in fairly wooden performances, but there is not much they can do with a script that requires them to mouth such gems as, "God, you're sweet" The minor parts are not badly done, but this is essentially a two-person play. And that includes the audience...
...without ever uttering a word of protest, Paul Richards shows his versatility. If it was joie de vivre before, it is mal de vivre now. Without saying a word he conveys utter abjectness, outdoing J.B. himself, who at least had fond memories. Arriving in heaven, Bontche is judged by God to be so innocent that anything in heaven is his for the asking. What Bontche asks for, and the way in which he asks for it, are so humble that God and the angels cannot but hang their heads in embarrassment...
...smaller scale in the first two works. At the end of the play Carnovsky sits and looks silently out over the audience, and one feels that the self-awareness that allowed him to laugh at his own predicaments now gives him courage in the face of God's all too evident ironies...