Saint Joan theatre review: Institutions in focus
A commanding performance anchors this intellectually rigorous adaptation of a lost George Bernard Shaw screenplay
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Defiance goes digital in Saint Joan, a clinically precise reworking of an unproduced 1930s George Bernard Shaw screenplay. Stewart Laing reframes the narrative through a modernist, film-inflected lens, stripping the staging to an exposed studio where blinding light replaces theatrical shadow. The effect is intentionally disorienting: a world of lethargy and institutional inaction dissected under unforgiving glare as Joan Of Arc’s divine resolve collides with a culture of complacency.
In her professional debut, Mandipa Kabanda is commanding, imbuing Joan with a clarity of purpose. Yet Laing’s abstraction, using fragmented digital devices and filmic interruptions, sometimes blunts the emotional stakes. The production’s most potent moment arrives only after the cast exit, when Adura Onashile’s filmed sequence reframes Joan as a contemporary influencer broadcasting a call to action. This coda lands with a force the preceding conceptual haze struggles to match.
Yaseen Clarke’s sound design, Michaella Fee’s lighting and Onashile’s filmed material maintain a high level of craft, though the layering of stylistic devices risks thematic oversaturation. Costuming sharpens the critique: the court appears in casual gear while Kabanda’s Joan wears a school uniform, a pointed infantilisation exposing the bloated establishment’s fear of the young women they patronise, perverse and police.
The structure is cold, methodical and deliberately enigmatic, offering theatre with distinction and intellectual bite. Yet the abstraction dilutes the intention. Laing’s vision remains unmistakable though: Saint Joan rising from rallying ashes with rejuvenated purpose, its valour walking a fine line between illumination and obfuscation.
Saint Joan, Perth Theatre, Wednesday 4–Saturday 7 March; The Lemon Tree, Aberdeen, Thursday 12–Saturday 14 March; Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Wednesday 18–Saturday 21 March; reviewed at Citizens Theatre, Glasgow; picture: Mihaela Bodlovic.