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Saint Joan at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater at Manhattan Theater Club

When MTC announced they were reviving George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan, I couldn't help but think, "Why? Who wants this?" And Condola Rashad is a very talented actress but is anyone clamoring to see her in this old, creaky play? (I'd argue she's not a draw in any role.)

I can say that yet again, MTC completely misses the mark with this production. I hate to be cruel but there are so many missteps that it's irredeemable.

Daniel Sullivan must take all of the blame. His Saint Joan is all over the map tone-wise. Some scenes are played broadly, with the comedy heightened. Is this the proper way to do the story of Joan of Arc? You could make the case that the church and the crown are buffoons in this story but you can't have them played like Saturday Night Live characters. Especially when the production shifts to a very serious tone during Joan's trial. Not to mention that embarrassingly bad epilogue; that truly felt like an SNL skit. I would've cut it altogether. Sure it mentions Joan's canonization, pardon, and legacy but that can't be unfamiliar to anyone in the audience.

And the whole thing is just so boring! It's almost three hours long, and it certainly feels like it. It moves at a glacial pace, and it doesn't help that the scenes themselves are incredibly long. The script is very talky, with little to no action. Some cuts to the text certainly would've been welcomed.

The design is downright ugly. Scott Pask's set of long, gold tubes, designed to look like bells, is so bulky and intrusive that it hinders the play. Jane Greenwood's costumes are shockingly bad, and look like cast-offs from an elementary school production of the story of Joan of Arc.


Sullivan also takes an incredibly talented group of actors and sends them out to sea. They are all over the place stylistically; some get the period of the piece, some don't even try and seem way too contemporary. Nobody is giving remotely strong performance. They are all just serviceable. Condola Rashad has no conviction in her Joan. She seems like a little girl playing dress up, and I don't believe for a second that men, hardened soldiers in the fifteenth century, would so blindly follow her. She moves around the stage with a "gee golly whiz!" wide-eyed look on her face. Even she can't believe this is all happening around her. It just doesn't work. (Also, whatever accent she's using is all over the place and incomprehensible. Someone should've told her to lose it.)

I hate to say this but this production is so inessential that it feels like a waste of time. I don't know how anyone can argue for a new revival of Saint Joan in 2018. Does there need to be a reason for a revival? No, I don't think so. But make it make sense. I just can't imagine anyone was sitting around thinking, "Gee, I'd love to see a production of Saint Joan. I hope someone revives it!" The MTC production simply makes a terrible, terrible case for such a long, creaky play.


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