Voices of Joan
PACT Theatre
Review by Kate Gaul
Whale Chorus presents Janie Gibson in her original solo performance “Voices of Joan”.
Based in Newcastle, Australia, Whale Chorus is a professional theatre company in the Hunter region. From the website: “Our mission is to reinvigorate theatre’s true function as a ritual of reconnection. We tell heart-centred stories, from Shakespeare to boundary pushing original plays, and experiment with new ways of engaging audiences through immersive, immediate and enlivening theatre.”
Joan of Arc is well worn territory for performance. Joan was a 17-year-old peasant girl from France who bravely led army forces against English invasion under the influence of divine inspiration. She was tried and burned alive at the stake by her enemies for crimes of heresy, sedition and witchcraft. She was burned three times to destroy all bodily remains, and her ashes dumped in the River Seine. 20 years later, the verdict was overturned, and Joan was cleared of all crimes. Her canonisation in 1920 solidified in her place in history as a martyr and a saint, one who would be remembered for her bravery and courage long after all her pious self-righteous accusers had perished.
Oppression, violence, the patriarchy, media, politics are all ripe subjects for the theatre. “Voices of Joan” explores Joan’s trial in a minefield of misogynistic beliefs that persist to the present day. Gibson is a charismatic presence, and she explores Joan anew with wit and humour.
As we enter the theatre Jamie Gibson sits on stage and is present with us. She has an old-school radio come cassette player from with emanates a staticky sound of bad tuning and messages partially received. Instantly we know this is a production of fragments, of words spoken and captured, recorded and repeated forever resonating in the air around us. Some we recognise but what we understand is that as an audience we are involved, and complicit in its outcomes. These are calls to action, to war and division – the world of the 15th century isn’t so remote. It’s a clever and apt lens through which to receive this telling and interpretation of Joan’s story. It also positions the audience as a witness to the action and opinions, not a passive outside force.
The words of Joan’s trial are a starting point - as they have been forever interpreted – Gibson builds a story about gender and slippery truth. Anu Almagro (Song of the Goat Theatre) directs. Gibson tells this story through embodying a multitude of characters (Bishop, Judge, young woman…). To do so she makes elaborate onstage transformations with costumes, wigs and props. She swaps clothes with a male audience member and thereby changes the presentation of her femininity. Great the first time but it is a tedious technique with such fragmentary material and broke the flow of an otherwise crafted buildup of ideas and – presumably the intention – audience anger, empathy, understanding.
The audience interaction is confident and smartly handled. The swapping of clothes as mentioned, the invitation to read aloud or write things down all culminates in achieving a stunning ending with all audience members rising from their seats to create Joan’s pyre.
Music and dramatic lighting support the production. One striking section of the content is Gibson’s excavation of text from a book called ‘Hammer of the Witches” – a treatise on witchcraft. It is a ridiculous and very dangerous compendium of demonology which ultimately condemned many, many women to execution.
“Voices of Joan” is all a bit loose and its tricky at times to appreciate the thematic cohesion, but its glue comes from a line repeated: “Once a word is spoken, its sound exists forever.” A haunting invocation for our times.
Kate Gaul
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