McCarter Theatre Center presents Bedlam's 'Saint Joan'

Lucky for us, though, that McCarter artistic director Emily Mann invited them.

Both of these challenging tragedies are performed by only four actors playing all the roles. Saint Joan plays virtually uncut and unamended, with director Eric Tucker, Edmund Lewis, and Tom O'Keefe playing all the male roles and Andrus Nichols as the title character.

Economy produces riches

I've long felt that restraints fuel creativity in theater. Give a director whatever he or she wants and little innovation is necessary. However, succeeding with limited means requires imagination -- often from both production and audience. While spectacle has its attractions (Look at that chandelier!), many theater lovers find the most involving and rewarding work is that which brings actors close to them, makes characters feel real, and brings stories to life.

What Bedlam's all about

McCarter's Berlind Theatre stage is bare except for a few generic chairs, seating for audience members, a few hanging cloths, some rickety backstage stairs, and "1429," the date the action begins, painted on the floor. Actors dressed in casual, modern clothing enter among the audience; Tucker implores us to silence our phones and jokes that we shouldn't worry about the production's three-hour length. "It's by George Bernard Shaw," he says, "so it's pretty good."

Shaw doesn't suit all tastes, but this is a fast-paced, energetic, clever rendition acted with conviction. The production's low-budget aesthetic provides many fun surprises: Little old cassette players operated by actors and a stagehand provide incidental music and crowd noise, costume pieces such as hats and vests help distinguish characters, and actors sometimes exchange roles mid-scene. Beyond Bedlam's own delights, though, the play's many characters and themes remain clear and compelling, and we’re always involved.

And what a play it is

Like the man said, it’s pretty good. Shaw based his drama on the historical record, leaving the matter of divine intervention open for our consideration. There are times, especially when Joan speaks with commonsense certainty about being guided by angels’ voices, that Saint Joan seems the most deeply religious play ever written by an atheist. Yet Shaw doesn’t shy away from the mundane political forces that led to Joan’s famous demise: “They would not remember me so well if you had not burned me,” she says in the play’s charming epilogue, a dream scene connecting Joan’s brief life with her canonization five centuries later.

Shaw resists portraying Joan’s inquisitors as evil. Some are terrified by her power to command men in battle and win people’s hearts; others are puzzled by whether a girl warrior might be a sorcerer or pragmatic about the rising nationalism that threatens the Catholic Church’s dominance.

The play resonates powerfully today when selfless leaders who set an impeccable example while working for a greater good are presently in short supply. “We want a few mad people now,” an ally says of Joan. “See where the sane ones have landed us?”

Shaw’s Joan is the focal point for Western civilization’s pivot from tiny fiefdoms to powerful nations, yet Joan, especially in Nichols’s assured and passionate portrayal, is always a real, albeit extraordinary, person. This Saint Joan shows why Shaw’s version is considered the female Hamlet, drama’s strongest and most challenging role for a woman.

Tucker and company pull the audience closer and closer to the action, staging that epilogue without a “stage” at all; actors sit among us, and we share in the story. It’s an exhilarating theatrical adventure, truly a must-see for all who enjoy classics staged for a modern audience.