Saint Joan is a 1923 play by Irishman George Bernard Shaw written shortly after the Roman Catholic Church canonized Joan of Arc. It is a dramatization based on what is known of her life and on the substantial records of her trial. It was first presented on Broadway in 1923 by the Theatre Guild with Winifred Lenihan as Joan. Its London premiere starred Shaw's friend Sybil Thorndike, the actress for whom he had written the part, and quickly became a classic. Then, Shaw's personal reputation following the Great War was at a low ebb, and it is thought that he wanted to first test the play away from England. Saint Joan is often credited for Shaw's 1925 Nobel Prize for Literature, but in actuality he kept the award and refused the money