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| Joan of Arc(Kate Eifrig) |
The English indeed were furious with Joan of Arc. The Earl of Warwick demanded she be captured and tried by the Inquisition, which would conveniently return Joan back to him for burning as a sorceress. Joan crowned the Dauphin King of France and pursued fighting the war rather than allow a treaty. The King warned her what would happen if she were captured, that neither he nor the Church would come to her aid. Joan persisted, was caught by the English, and tried for heresy by a French court of the Inquisition, which sentenced her to be burned at the stake.
Of course, Joan became a canonized saint in 1920. Her unconventionalism and "voices" were deemed blasphemous but what essentially occurred was the end of a medieval Europe and the end of a concept of Christendom. She represents the problem of the individual versus the collective or society. Joan's story remains timeless. She stood relentlessly with her belief in God right up to her death in a cruel self-righteous society. She's no different than any great figure that has challenged a corrupt system except that she's an uneducated young woman doing what a man would do in the fifteenth century.
George Bernard Shaw's "St. Joan" remains a masterpiece. Shaw says "there are no villains. The tragedy about murders such as [St. Joan] is that they are not committed by murderers." Shaw concedes that movements that are righteous eventually become vindictive because they blindly believe their causes are absolute. When you never examine your righteous actions you never learn from it.
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| Joan and French Captain Jack Dunois(Bruce Abas) |
Jim Halloran is delightful as the nervously twittering Dauphin. He retorts with whining flair, "I never asked to be King, I was pushed into it." He executes sharp comic timing with some perfectly foolish looking tights. Bryan Bevell however takes too light an approach with his character, Robert de Baudricourt, in the opening scene. He glibly plays for laughs with actions that should be threatening. Nor does he quite get under the menacing skin of Earl of Warwick in Act II. William Kimes, with his dry resonating baritone voice and droll execution, does brilliant turns with Archbishop of Rheims and Cauchon, the Bishop of Beauvais. His archbishop has the funniest line of the play: "You English are strangely blunt in the mind" referring to the English Chaplain.
And speaking of the Chaplain, David Rinzema plays the pompous fool with impeccable acuity that shines to an incredibly painful remorse. Michael Lee shows great range striking an amazing resemblance to Bluebeard in costume and a viciously attacking persona as the prosecutor. Jim Stowell is at the top of his game (excluding a meandering British accent) with four varying roles. His Inquisitor stands out with astute line readings: "Heresy should be [about] vain and ignorant people interpreting God's will . . . cast out anger, do not cast out mercy."
Costume Designer Jeannie Galioto offers authenticity and rich character detail, particularly to Bluebeard and the Dauphin. Randle Farris' set design showcases a bare set with brilliantly bright colored church window panes.
Joan's last line of the play asks "O God that madest this beautiful earth, when will it be ready to receive thy saints? How long, O lord, how long?" It took the Catholic Church five centuries to canonize St. Joan. It's a telling metaphor for mankind who too often seem fundamentally unable to break from their shadow of suppressing change.
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