>>PREVIEW
SAINT JOAN
Theatre Calgary
Starring Diana Donnelly
Written by George Bernard Shaw
Directed by Neil Munro
Runs until February 18
Max Bell Theatre (Epcor Centre)
"I was just kicking some medieval butt," says Diana Donnelly as she makes her entrance from a rehearsal and sits down for an interview. Donnelly is playing the classic heroine Joan of Arc in George Bernard Shaw’s famous and most performed play, Saint Joan. Produced by Theatre Calgary and directed by Neil Munro, a veteran director of Shaw’s many works, the show once again brings together theatre artists from the Calgary scene and Ontario’s Shaw Festival.
Like Munro, Donnelly is a member of the festival. When the 27-year-old actor was offered the part of Joan nearly a year ago, she felt incredibly honoured. "She’s one of the best gals you could possibly play," she says. In fact, this play provides one of the biggest female roles in theatre. "I’ve met other actresses who have played this role in the past, and still, when they talk about it, you can see their eyes light up," she says.
Donnelly, who grew up in Montreal, started acting as a child and, after a short period spent focusing on basketball, went back to acting in her late teens and graduated from the National Theatre School. Now in her fourth season at the Shaw Festival, she’s thrilled to be performing in the West for the first time. "I have family in Calgary and Saskatchewan who don’t normally get to see my performances, but now they will."
Based on the legendary life of Joan of Arc – born in France in 1412 and burned at the stake for heresy in 1431 – Saint Joan brings to life some of the soldier-saint’s most powerful and tragic moments. It’s not by coincidence that the play was first produced in New York in 1923, three years after the Roman Catholic Church canonized her.
The play is divided into six scenes with the first scene set at the Castle de Vaucouleurs in 1429. There, Joan meets with Robert de Baudicourt and eventually convinces him that she has been sent by God to rid France of the English, at a time when the Hundred Years War seemed to be a lost cause for the French. Inspired by visions of saints, passion and faith, the young peasant girl transforms herself into a warrior, leads hundreds of men into battle and, miraculously, brings victory to France.
However, her courage and strength aren’t recognized by medals and adulation. Rather, she is seen as a heretic, a threat to the governing church and prevailing feudal system, and as a result is tried, found guilty and executed.
"The story of Joan symbolizes (for me) everything we do wrong," says Donnelly. "We tend to kill the extraordinary. She was the ultimate believer and yet burned as a heretic."
Although Joan’s tragic story unfolds in the 15th century, Donnelly says audiences today can expect to be touched and walk away questioning their beliefs.
"Neil Munro is a fantastic director. He’s not interested in anything that gets in the way of the immediacy of the relationship between the audience and the story. Anything that would make the audience feel more removed from the story, he gets rid of," she says.
Those familiar with the various film and television versions of Joan of Arc’s life will recall countless battle scenes, which are not re-enacted in the play. "Shaw was a smart man of the theatre. The battle scenes onstage are intellectual, not physical," says Donnelly. Among the themes and issues that Shaw raises in the play are those of nationalism, heroism, gender and evolution, which are just as relevant in today’s society.
After almost one year of preparation for the role, Donnelly is more than ready to bring Joan to life and embody her legacy onstage. What she admires the most about Shaw’s portrayal of the saint is her ability to be completely herself.
"She can be in the presence of a king, a soldier or a shepherd, and she’ll be entirely herself," says Donnelly. "She doesn’t compromise who she is for anybody and doesn’t play status games with people." |
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