Anna Burnside reviews an ambitious production.
Joan, a 15th-century saint, is wearing leg warmers and a t-shirt that reads: “Beam me up this place sucks.” The Dauphin favours a shell suit. Stewart Laing’s adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s never-produced film script based on his 1923 play Saint Joan is a horse, pyrotechnic and period costume-free zone.
Instead, Martin O’Connor narrates Shaw’s filming directions, turning a sparse set, with a giant pulsing beacon and a white wall, into a battlefield or a court room.
O’Connor, who also plays a steward and an inquisitor, brings self-deprecating humour into the mix. Four other male actors swap between the other roles, their physicality dwarfing young Joan.
Mandipa Kabanda, in her professional debut, takes none of their nonsense. She has utter confidence in the saints and angels she hears in her head. She is a soldier on a mission, and no minor nobleman doing performative press-ups will persuade her otherwise.
Then, as we are getting the hang of how this is going, Charli XCX’s ‘360’ blares out. The male cast change into voluminous black sweatshirts to begin the inquisition. Joan, in school uniform, is still unrepentant, but this section sags badly.
After her conviction, there’s another handbrake turn as a film by Adura Onashile flickers onto the white wall. Here’s 21st century Joan, tarring and feathering herself, interspersed with footage of political protest.
It’s hard to fault Laing’s ambition or the message of this Saint Joan. The pacing could be sparkier and Charli is inexplicable, but we need all the Joans we can get.
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Saint Joan performs at Citizens Theatre Glasgow until February 28, 2026. It then tours to Perth Theatre, The Lemon Tree, Aberdeen and Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh. For further details, go to the production’s website.
Photo by Mihaela Bodlovic.
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