Joan

YOU DON’T HAVE to look far in this world to see a woman pilloried for having power; it’s hard to believe that the story of Joan of Arc, one of the most iconic victims of the patriarchy, will ever entirely lose its currency. But certainly, following a year in which America contemplated its first female president, the Rabble’s theatrical take on the 15th century Catholic warrior (and later martyr and saint) seems timely. Devised by Rabble directors Kate Davis and Emma Valente with actors Luisa Hastings Edge, Nikki Shiels, Emily Milledge and Dana Miltins,

Joan examines the teen crusader as a female figurehead in a man’s world. “We’re asking what is the difference between how society looks at a woman with symbolic power versus one with actual power?” says Davis.the Rabble specialise in reconfiguring classic texts from the Western literary canon into feminist, queer and surreal works of theatre (in recent years, The Story

of O and Frankenstein). While Joan is a historic figure, the mythic quality of her story is an apt subject: while there are many versions across literature, theatre and film the only written “history” is of her trial. A pious Catholic who claimed to have visions marking her as a ‘saviour of France’, 17-year-old Joan was adopted by the French monarchy in 1429 as a kind of ‘war mascot’; but when she was captured in war and turned over to the English, the French leadership abandoned her – and she was tried for heresy (among other crimes that included dressing like a man) and burned at the stake. “We’re especially interested in whether Joan would have been listened to, and followed, if she was not holy, pure and a virgin,” says Davis, “and whether a contemporary woman can hold real power without a cost to her body.” ■ Dee Jefferson