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Saint Joan
By Bernard Shaw
Directed by Jackie Maxwell
Produced by The Shaw Festival of Canada
At Chicago Shakespeare Theater
Navy Pier
Chicago, IL
Call 312-595-5600, tickets $54 - $70
Tuesdays at 7:30 pm
Wednesdays at 1 & 7:30 pm
Thursdays at 7:30 pm
Fridays at 7:30 pm
Saturdays at 2 & 7:30 pm
Sundays at 3 pm
Running time is 2 hours, 45 minutes with intermission
Through January 20, 2008
Fantastic world-class mounting of Bernard Shaw’s masterwork in a short run at Chicago Shakespeare Theater
As part of Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s The World’s Stage Series, The Shaw Festival of Canada has brought their featured production of Bernard Shaw’s classic 1923 work, Saint Joan to Chicago. This is a great piece of theatre! The Shaw Festival of Canada, a highly regarded theatre troupe, understands how to mount George Bernard Shaw’s plays.
Director Jackie Maxwell moved the play’s epilogue to the opening to set the story of Joan of Arc (1412-31) set in post World War I wherein a cleric appears to King Charles as a ‘ghost of the future’ from 1920 just as the Catholic Church announces their declaration of sainthood for Joan. The connection from WWI to the rise of nationalism led Shaw to write his masterpiece, Saint Joan. Shaw believes that nationalism, ignited by Joan’s actions, grew to fuel many wars culminating in The Great War of 1914-18.
Shaw’s play brilliantly chronicles Jeanne d’Arc, a peasant girl who in 1431 led an army, crowned a king and threatened both the English and the Catholic Church’s entrenched institutions leading to her being burned at the stake. Shaw portrays Joan (the charismatic Tara Rosling) as a pure innocent who hears voices from God telling her to lead French armies to oust the English from French soil. Her charm and aura motivated ordinary soldiers and generals to take action in defeating the English armies. Along the way, she motivates a cowardly Dauphin (later Charles VII), played by Harry Judge, to become the French King as well as threatening feudal institutions and the power of the Catholic Church.
Shaw’s poetic language, brilliantly performed by a most eloquent and articulate cast of powerful Canadian actors, tells an extraordinary story shining a bright light on the roots of nationalism and the abusive repression of dogmatic religious beliefs. Political intrigue prevails as the feudal aristocracy is threatened by Joan’s nationalism beliefs. The story deftly flows from Joan’s inspiration of the troops toward victory to her defiance of the French authorities as she becomes a pawn to their political maneuvers. The Catholic Church, with the help of occupying English, needed to silence Joan’s influence since a united French state would not serve local barons and bishops well. The Inquisition tried her as a heretic believing that she must confess that her voices didn’t come from God. Shaw marvelously plays these scenes as high drama.
This riveting drama features a superb cast marvelously playing their fears, angst and authority in one of the finest productions to hit the stages in Chicago in years! Hurry to get tickets since it only runs through January 20, 2008
Highly Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date Reviewed: January 9, 2008
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