Editing Sybil Thorndike (section)

== 1920s ==
In early 1920 Thorndike successfully repeated her Hecuba and played the title roles in Shaw's ''Candida'' and in another Euripides play, ''[[Medea (play)|Medea]]''. The critic [[J. T. Grein]] wrote of the latter, "It is a great example of tragic acting, and a magnificent achievement".<ref>"A great tragic actress: Miss Sybil Thorndike as Medea", ''Illustrated London News'', 13 March 1920, p. 395</ref> Later in the year Thorndike joined her brother and her husband in a two-year run of [[Grand Guignol]] melodramas at the [[Little Theatre in the Adelphi|Little Theatre]].<ref name=m384>Morley (1986), p. 384</ref>
[[File:Sybil-Thorndike-Saint-Joan-Sketch-1924.png|thumb|upright|left|As [[Saint Joan (play)|Saint Joan]], 1924|alt=stage scene depicting a white woman wearing medieval armour, kneeling in a church]]
The vogue for theatrical horror began to wane and Casson and Thorndike joined [[Bronson Albery]] and [[Mary Moore (stage actress)|Lady Wyndham]] in the management of the [[Noël Coward Theatre|New Theatre]] in 1922. They opened with [[Percy Bysshe Shelley|Shelley]]'s verse tragedy ''[[The Cenci]]''. Shaw saw a performance, and told his wife, "I have found my Joan".<ref name=m385>Morley (1986), p. 385</ref> He was planning a play about [[Joan of Arc]], which he completed in 1923.<ref>Holroyd, p. 523</ref> It was his custom to open his plays on [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] before their West End premieres,{{refn|The world premieres of all Shaw's plays between 1920 and 1935 were in New York, with the single exception of ''[[The Apple Cart]]''.<ref name=tyson>Tyson, pp. 82 and 90</ref>|group=n|}} and the first actress to play his Joan was [[Winifred Lenihan]], but the part was written with Thorndike in mind.<ref name=tyson/> 

''[[Saint Joan (play)|Saint Joan]]'' opened at the New Theatre in March 1924.<ref name=ww2>Herbert, p. 1477</ref> Thorndike's performance received praise from the critics, but there were reservations: in ''The Times'', [[A. B. Walkley]] said that she performed beautifully, but he found her "rusticity of speech a superfluity". The critic of ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' felt that no other actress could have better "hit off the Maid's simplicity without losing her strength". [[Desmond MacCarthy]] in the ''[[New Statesman]]'', praised Thorndike for emphasising the "insistive, energetic, almost pert traits of the Maid as Mr Shaw conceives her" but thought she missed "the sweetness and simplicity of the Maid's replies and demeanour in the trial scene" though driving home Joan's "distress, her alertness, her courage".<ref>''Quoted'' in Tyson, p. 95</ref> In ''[[The Observer]]'', [[Lennox Robinson]] wrote that Thorndike's performance "was beautiful, was entirely satisfying. Mr Shaw was, indeed, nobly served."<ref>Robinson, Lennox, "At the Play", ''The Observer'', 31 March 1924, p. 11</ref> The initial London production ran for 244 performances,<ref name=m385/> and Thorndike starred in revivals over the following 17 years not only in London (1925, 1926, 1931 and 1941) but at the [[Théâtre des Champs-Élysées]], Paris (1927) and on tours of South Africa (1928) and the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand (1932−33).<ref>Croall, pp. 529–532</ref>

In 1927−28 Thorndike was again a member of the Old Vic company, for a season at the [[Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith]]. She played Katherina in ''[[The Taming of the Shrew]]'', Portia in ''[[The Merchant of Venice]]'', Beatrice in ''[[Much Ado About Nothing]]'' and Chorus and the Princess of France in ''[[Henry V (play)|Henry V]]''.<ref name=ww2/>

In the 1920s Thorndike entered films, appearing in four: as Mrs Brand in ''[[Moth and Rust]]'' (1921), various parts in ''Tense Moments from Great Plays'' (1922),{{refn|This was an omnibus of one-reel adaptations of scenes from various well-known plays and novels. Thorndike appeared in scenes from ''[[Macbeth]]'' (as Lady Macbeth), ''[[Bleak House]]'' (Lady Dedlock), ''[[Jane Shore (play)|Jane Shore]]'' (Jane), ''[[La Dame aux Camélias]]'' (Marguerite), ''[[The Merchant of Venice]]'' (Portia), ''[[The Hunchback of Notre-Dame]]'' (Esmeralda) and ''[[The Scarlet Letter]]'' (Hester).<ref>Gifford, listings 07439–07447</ref> The [[British Film Institute]] also lists a scene from ''[[Oliver Twist]]'' with Thorndike as Nancy.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20200125110148/https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b7490a935 "Nancy"], British Film Institute. Retrieved 1 December 2022</ref>|group=n}} [[Edith Cavell]] in ''[[Dawn (1928 film)|Dawn]]'' (1928) and the Mother in ''[[To What Red Hell]]'' (1929).<ref name=c526/> In 1923 she made her first radio broadcasts for the [[BBC]]; during the decade these included two of her best-known stage roles: Medea and Saint Joan.<ref>Croall, pp. 537−538</ref>