Doctor Knock Newsletter by Mint Theater Company

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Volume VII, Issue IV February, 2010

ealth care reform of a darkly comic kind drives DR. KNOCK, OR THE TRIUMPH OF MEDICINE, Jules Romains’ tart 1923 satire. “A doctor transforms an entire district of unhappily healthy citizens into a flourishing community of happy invalids,” was how The London Times described the plot, reviewing the 1994 London revival. The Spectator deemed DR. KNOCK “the funniest play about medical quackery since Moliere’s Le Malade Imaginaire.”

Medical quackery informs only one level of DR. KNOCK’s humor. Scratch the surface, and you find something more complex. Michael Billington, seeing Sam Walters’ 1979 revival at London’s Orange Tree Theater wrote in the Guardian: Never having seen DR. KNOCK before, I went expecting a brisk, anti-medical lampoon; what I found was a spare, lean play of considerable complexity and topicality. In the first place, it is much more a satire on public credulity than professional quackery. The eponymous hero is a self-taught medico, addicted since childhood to patent medicines, who takes over the practice in an ostensibly healthy mountain village. Offering free consultation to the residents and fee-paying sessions to the rest, he turns the village into a boom community for illness and disease. But the real joke is that he is motivated not by greed or gain but by a perverted idealism. In recent decades, Knock’s powerful fanaticism has been interpreted as foreshadowing the wave of fascism that swept Europe prior to World War II, a caustic “symbol of all the false prophets—political, religious, scientific—that have enthralled the gullible 20th century,” as put by critic Lyn Gardner, reviewing the 1994 London revival, also directed by Walters. In testament to the play’s undying relevance, Walters directed DR. KNOCK three times in London between 1967 and 1994.

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Significantly, during the 1920s, Romains ranked among the most produced playwrights in the world, alongside George Bernard Shaw and Luigi Pirandello. By 1930, he had four plays playing simultaneously in Paris. He would go on to preside over the French branch of PEN, the international writers’ association championing free speech, and was elected to the Academie Francaise. A novelist and poet as well as a playwright, his most famous work was his 27-volume epic Men of Good Will. DR. KNOCK, OR THE TRIUMPH OF MEDICINE first opened in Paris in 1923. The play ran for an unprecedented five years and made a star of actor Louis Jouvet in the title role. Jouvet would play Dr. Knock almost to the day he died. He revived the play frequently over the next three decades, and starred in three film versions, including the 1951 film, his last completed cinematic role. To this day, the play remains widely read and revived in France. The term Knockisme has entered the language, used to denote popular credibility and gullibility. An heavily bowdlerized English translation by Harley Granville-Barker was first published in 1925 (dropping the subtitle THE TRIUMPH OF MEDICINE) and “Romains’ brilliant French farce” was subsequently listed among the “Plays of the Year” by The Observer. The 1926 London production was lauded and for the next decade, DR. KNOCK was frequently revived in London and across England. St. John Ervine, the Irish critic and playwright (author of JOHN FERGUSON, revived at the Mint in 2006) saw a production in Manchester

C ONTINUE D i n s i d e

C ONTINUE D f r o m f r o n t

graduation, he taught philosophy full-time while continuing to write poems and prose. He published his first volume of poems, La vie unanime, in 1908. They outlined his new philosophy of Unanimism, which Romains said he discovered while wandering the streets of Paris. In Unanimism, Romains “had an intuition of the interconnectedness of all people, that groups possess a sort of collective soul, generated by disparate individuals who make up the group,” according to biographer Susan McCready.

in 1926 and observed “the play has plenty of fun in it.” In 1928, DR. KNOCK debuted in New York. It was directed by Russian émigré Richard Boleslavsky for his American Laboratory Theater, known for cutting-edge productions of new European drama. Brooks Atkinson, writing in The New York Times, admired Romains’ “intellectual farce.” While never as popular in the United States as in Europe, DR. KNOCK remained in the dramatic repertoire until World War II. The BBC filmed two versions of the play, first in 1938 and again in 1968, by which time DR. KNOCK was considered a landmark of the French repertoire. Frank Hauser, the groundbreaking director of England’s Oxford Playhouse from 1956 to 1973, penned a new translation of DR. KNOCK in 1973. Hauser rose to fame by reviving French classics by Anouilh, Achard, and Sartre, but he chose KNOCK as his piece de resistance, his farewell to the Oxford Playhouse before he stepped down as artistic director. His production would go on to tour England and played an extended run in London. DR. KNOCK, OR THE TRIUMPH OF MEDICINE has not been seen on stage in New York since 1928. The Mint is proud to bring you an ingenious new production of this barbed comedy directed by Gus Kaikkonen, who helmed our acclaimed production THE MADRAS HOUSE (2007). It’s a play whose time has come again, if it ever went away. “The mystery is why it should have been so ignored,” wondered The Spectator at its 1994 London revival, while the Guardian called DR. KNOCK “a real parable for our times.” - Heather J. Violanti

Jules Romains (1885 - 1972) Jules Romains ranks among the most prolific French writers of the twentieth century and among the most important of the interwar period. His most famous work, the 27 volume novel Men of Good Will, is comparable to the works of Zola and Proust in scale and ambition. In Romains’ words, Men of Good Will “presented a sort of epic from the beginning of the 20th century all over the world, especially in France…it existed in my mind from my earliest youth, when I first began to write.” Romains was born Louis-Henri-Jean Farigoule on August 26, 1885 in the village of Saint-Julien Chapteuil. He spent most of his childhood in Paris, where his father was a teacher. Romains was an excellent student, earning a baccalauréat classique in 1900 and an additional baccalauréat in philosophy in 1902. In 1902, he also published his first poem, “Le Chef-d’ouvre” (“The Masterpiece”) in La Revue Jeune. He published under the pen name he would use the rest of his life—Jules Romains—so chosen because it was easy to pronounce, memorable, and expressed his sympathie pour Rome (love of Rome). Romains continued to write and publish poetry, but he also furthered his education, entering the elite Ecole Normale Supéricure in 1906 for an additional degree. After Left: Poster from the French production of Doctor Knock. Above: Jules Romains from LIFE magazine; photo by Eric Schaal, 1945 (Getty).

Unanimism influenced a generation of avant-garde thinkers and artists, particularly the utopian Group de l’Abbaye, whose members included Romains, socialist writer Alexandre Mercereau, and poet and playwright Charles Vildrac. Unanimism also inspired the paintings of the early Cubists, who challenged conventional divisions of space and time. “For Romains the city was an Unanimist entity, a psychological as well as a physical fact, where responses to the past and present interpenetrate,” explains the MOMA’s guide to Cubism. The precepts of Unanimism also inspired Romains’ own work as a playwright. He was particularly fascinated by conflicts between the collective and the individual. In his first play, the verse drama L’Armée dans la Ville, a town temporarily resists invasion through collective effort. Produced at the Théatre de l’Odéon in 1911, L’Armée received critical praise but was a box office failure. It would be ten years before Romains would attempt playwriting again. In 1920, the influential director Jacques Copeau produced Romains’ Cromedyre-le-viel to acclaim, and Romains began playwriting in earnest. His first box office hit came in March 1923 with Monsieur Le Trouhadec saisi par la débauche, about a naïve yet cunning professor who falls in love with an actress in Monte Carlo. It was directed by visionary actor/director/designer Louis Jouvet. The year 1923 held more triumph in store. Romains surpassed the success of Trouhadec with another comedy produced later year, Knock, ou Le Triomphe de la Médicine (Knock, or the Triumph of Medicine). Jouvet, who directed and starred in Knock, did not expect this dark comedy of a maniacal doctor to be a hit, but he was wrong. The play was a sensation. Knock was revived six times between 1924 and 1933, and seven more times between 1935 and 1949. Jouvet called it his “magic play” and even appeared in three film versions.

By 1930, Romains had four plays running in Paris simultaneously: a revival of Knock, Jean Musse, Donogoo, and Boën. Critic Oliver Larkin, writing in Theatre Arts Monthly, called Romains: the most vigilant comic since Molière….Each of his plays revolves about some monstrous delusion of the present day: in Knock it is the delusion of pseudo-science, in Donogoo Big Business, in Jean Musse the friction of personal liberty, and in Boën our confidence in the creative power of wealth.”

EnrichMINT events

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Romains’ plays displayed a constant struggle between the group and a dynamic, if ambiguously honest, individual, as well as an ambivalence towards science and technology in modern life. Romains proclaimed it was the duty of the twentieth century writer “to discover beneath the appearances of the modern world a spiritual reality more profound than he ever before has tried to find.” During World War II, Romains and his wife fled France during the Nazi Occupation. The Gestapo ransacked their apartment, destroying many of Romains’ personal papers. During this time, Romains lived in the United States and Mexico, teaching at various universities and founding Mexico’s Petit Théâtre Français. From 1936 to 1939, Romains served as President of PEN, the international writers’ association. On behalf of PEN, Romains denounced Hitler and Mussolini, but some PEN members, notably H.G. Wells, were dissatisfied with Romains’ leadership. Wells falsely claimed Romains was arrogant and a Nazi sympathizer. Romains nevertheless resigned his post and continued his pacifist work outside of PEN. In 1946, Romains was elected to the Académie Française, the pre-eminent body governing the French language. He moved back to France, living out the remainder of his life as a respected man of letters. Though Romains achieved great acclaim across various genres, toward the end of his life he remarked, “It is a source of great regret to me that no one has ever valued my poetry higher.” He died in Paris at the age of 86. -Heather J. Violanti

All events take place immediately after the performance and usually last about fifty minutes. They are free and open to the public. Speakers and dates subject to change without notice. Call (212) 315-0231 for more information.

Saturday, April 17th after the matinee

Jules Romains: An Introduction

Jeanine Parisier Plottel is Professor Emeritus at Hunter College & The Graduate Center, CUNY, and former chair of the Hunter Department of Romance Languages, as well as the author of many articles and books in both French and English. The French government has decorated her twice for her contributions to French Language, Literature and Culture. She presently serves on several boards, including Barnard College, where she is a trustee, the Society for French American Cultural Exchange (FACE), the Columbia University Maison Française, and the NYU Institute of French Studies. She traces her intellectual genealogy to Jules Romains: her Ph. D. thesis advisor, friend, and mentor, Jean Hytier, was one of Jules Romains’s students.

Sunday, April 18th after the matinee

Dr Knock in context:

a discussion of theater in France

Actor Louis Jouvet, photo credit unknown.

“Twenty-five years ago, in a penetrating act of inspiration, KNOCK revealed the direction a new mentality was going to take… This mentality was Information and its strategies, astounding advances and its violent dramatizings; abrupt and terrifying revelations; the invention of new needs, new ways of breakdown; the exalting of fresh anxieties that humankind would feed upon. Jules Romains announced, though we didn’t know it yet, the mad-cap mechanisms that were going to rule the world, suggestion and self-suggestion. In KNOCK, like a prophet at the gates, Jules Romains suddenly shone a light on power, the upsurge of paradigms, and collective theories.” — Louis Jouvet, 1949

Professor Judith Graves Miller is the Chair of the Department of French at NYU and former Director of NYU in Paris from 19982003. Dr. Miller specializes in Francophone Literature (particularly theater). Professor Miller has done extensive work in 20th century French theater: Theory, Production and Text and is recognized as a leading authority on Francophone theater. Her talk will focus on theater in France when Knock was first written and produced.

Wednesday April 21st after the performance

Romains and Dr. Knock: European Theater in the 1920’s

Tom Bishop is the Florence Gould Professor of French Literature, NYU and Director of NYU’s Center for French Civilization and Culture. His publications include From the Left Bank: Reflections on the Modern French Theater and Novel, Remembering Roland Barthes: 20 Years Later, and L’Avant-garde thétrale: French Theater Since 1950. His writings on contemporary theater, and on France and French-American relations have appeared in Le Monde, The New York Times Book Review, Yale French Studies. Professor Bishop has been awarded the Grand Prize of the Académie Francaise and been named Officer of the French Legion of Honor, Commander of the French Order of Merit, and Officer of the French Order of Arts and Letters.

THE TRAGEDY BEHIND THE COMEDY: A TRUE STORY

s you know, when we produce a play I make a special effort to tell you the story behind the story. I like to put a play in context and to understand what was going on when it was first written and produced.

SO HELP ME GOD! proved to be an especially challenging story to uncover— in fact, some of the early material we put out about the play was dead wrong! We spent a good deal of time and energy just trying to get the basic facts straight. We made trips to libraries in both Brooklyn and Queens looking for feature stories and reviews of the “try-out” productions in newspaper archives and combed through the archives of The New York Times as well. By the time we were done gathering material and sifting through earlier drafts of the play, I thought I had become the leading authority on the topic. So when one of our dedicated patrons, after a performance the final weekend, said to me “I know the story behind this play” I was skeptical that he

“I thought I had become the leading authority on the topic, so when one of our dedicated patrons said to me, ‘I know the story behind this play’ I was skeptical. It turned out I was wrong.” was going to be able to surprise me. It turned out I was wrong. I should have known better. David Stenn is a film and television writer/producer and a generous supporter and dedicated friend of the Mint. David is also the author of two meticulously researched biographies: Clara Bow: Runnin’ Wild and Bombshell: The Life and Death of Jean Harlow. He is now gathering research for a third biography about the

Above, left: Kristen Johnston as stage diva Lily Darnley, photo by Richard Termine. Right: Jeanne Eagels, the real Ms. Darnley, photo by Strauss-Peyton, 1929.

legendary actress Jeanne Eagels—and that is why he was able to tell me “the story” behind SO HELP ME GOD! Jeanne Eagels was an actress whose light blazed briefly and brilliantly. Her greatest success came in 1922 when she created the role of Sadie Thompson in RAIN, a drama by John Colton and Clemence Randolph, based on a Somerset Maugham story. Eagels name became synonymous with the play and the impression she made on those who saw her lasted forever. More than twelve years after RAIN had opened in New York, Brooks Atkinson wrote in the Times that Eagels “drew a graphic image that no other actress could destroy.” Not even Tallulah Bankhead, who was starring in the revival that Atkinson was reviewing.

in the Times was six weeks later, announcing that: Rehearsals of “Chicago”…were interrupted last Saturday to permit Francine Larrimore, now playing in “This Was a Man,” to take over Miss Eagels’s part, it was learned yesterday. Differences with several directors, it is reported, were the cause of Miss Eagels giving up the role. Sam Forrest who directed her in “Rain,” resigned after rehearsing several performances. George Abbott is now directing the company.

By 1926 Eagels had performed the play 1,392 times and counting, on Broadway and the road. She was understandably eager for a new project to sink her teeth into. At about this time the Times announced that Eagels would star in a new play, “the work of a Chicago newspaper woman named Maurine Watkins”. That play was CHICAGO.

It would appear that Maurine may have witnessed the events she dramatized in the first act of SO HELP ME GOD! first hand—no wonder she was able to describe them with so much bite! And Maurine was not shy about making sure that audiences made the connection between Lily Darnley and Eagels. You may recall, at the very beginning of the play when Kerry is talking to Belle and the other actors she says that her father is a missionary in India. Belle’s response is to bellow out the title: “Rain!”— an unsubtle clue that would have been crystal clear to most theatergoers of the era.

The next time that Eagels name appears

The events of the second act of SO HELP

ME GOD! also take their inspiration from the career of Jeanne Eagels after she left Maurine’s play—a descending spiral of controversy that ended with Eagels being banned by Actors Equity from performing in any Equity production for 18 months, beginning in April 1928. The ban, the most severe yet given to an actor of her standing, was a result of Eagels failing to appear for Milwaukee and St. Louis performances of the comedy HER CARDBOARD LOVER—the play that Eagels went into after leaving CHICAGO. Eagels claimed her absence was due to food poisoning. Rumors circulated, however, that Eagels was lying drunk in a Chicago hotel room. Maurine used one well-known incident from HER CARDBOARD LOVER as inspiration for the Act 3 curtain call scene in SO HELP ME GOD!. Lily taking bows while the crowd called for Kerry would seem an act of supreme comic invention, but they are in fact a direct echo of what really happened in a tiff between Eagels and leading man Leslie Howard. On opening night, when the audience enthusiastically demanded a special bow for Howard, Eagels remained onstage accepting applause intended for her co-star. Social historian Allen Churchill told the story in a New

York Times piece published in 1982 under the title: “Recalling the Heyday of the Great White Way”. On the first night at the Empire, Howard was so brilliant that the audience rose at the end chanting “Howard, Howard!” By stage tradition, the star must take the initial curtain calls, followed discreetly (if at all) by the supporting cast. As this audience chanted, the curtain kept going up and down to expose a brightly smiling Jeanne Eagels, darting forward to genuflect gracefully and retire. She never stopped, and finally the audience quit and went home.

After the ban, Eagels performed excerpts of her great triumph, RAIN, in vaudeville houses and starred in various motion pictures, filling a desperate need for stage-trained actors whose voices recorded well in the new “talkies.” She boasted she’d be back on Broadway by Christmas 1929. Plans were underway for her return, but fate intervened. On October 3, 1929, accompanied by her maid, Eagels went to her doctor’s private offices on Park Avenue, but there she convulsed and died. In two separate autopsies, Eagels’ blood was found to have excessive amounts of alcohol, heroin, and the tranquilizer chloral hydrate. Eagels’ untimely demise may also have helped to bring an untimely end to SO HELP ME GOD! Its central joke was no longer funny, now that Lily Darnley’s reallife counterpart was dead. SO HELP ME GOD! began its out-of-town try-out in Brooklyn on October 7th —the day after Eagels funeral in Manhattan. According to the Times, an estimated 3,000 people “most of whom were drawn by curiosity, filed past the bier, before and after the services.”

From top: The cast of SO HELP ME GOD. Johnston and Allen Lewis Rickman. Far right: Johnston. Photos by Richard Termine.

SO HELP ME GOD! was to have opened on Broadway on October 28, 1929, but that final week of October brought the infamous stock market crash that signaled the start of the Great Depression. SO HELP ME GOD!—and Jeanne Eagels— were forgotten….until David Stenn saw the Mint production and made the connection between this overlooked comedy and the transcendent star who inspired it. - Jonathan Bank

please join us for an Intimate Evening with Kristen Johnston and members of the cast of

So Help Me God! to benefit the Mint Theater

Featuring “Outtakes” from SO HELP ME GOD!: an exclusive selection of hilarious scenes and outrageous characters, excluded from our production.

Monday, March 8th 6:30 to 8:30

Cocktails and hors d’oeuvres Hosted by Linda Calandra and the Board of the Mint Theater at the home of Christopher Ang and Julie Durkin 210 West 78th Street Penthouse 10A $250 per person Space is extremely limited!

RSVP today at (212) 315-0231 or use the order form in this newsletter.