Put your drinks down and your hands together all the way from Domremy in France (via Soho and 600 years) it’s JOAN!
JOAN is a lyrical and poetic performance that combines theatre, new writing, and cabaret as the Maid of Orléans tours the UK – and she’s stopping at the Hole in the Wall pub in Spalding on Sunday 8 May, at 7.30pm.
Pull up a pew, or indeed bar stool, for this earthy story of courage, conviction, hope, survival and love written and directed by Lucy J Skillbeck and performed by drag idol champion Lucy Jane Parkinson aka LoUis CYfer.
Joan of Arc is an icon for those who don’t conform to a binary gender, she encompasses the masculine and the feminine and the show hopes to encourage viewers to consider their own gender identity and attitudes towards gender.
Joan of Arc died at the stake in 1431, aged 19 and dressed in male clothing. 6 years prior Joan first began experiencing visitations from Saint Catherine. By 16 these visions had instructed her to support Charles VII in the ongoing 100 Years War against the English. Dressed in her signature male attire and with her unwavering belief that she had been chosen by divine powers, she lead her troops to initial victory She was later captured and put on trail in English ruled Rouen, where charges of heresy were added for her refusal to wear women’s clothing, which eventually led to her demise. She was arguably the worlds first drag king.
Twenty-five years after her execution a posthumous trail was conducted which debunked all charges against her and proclaimed her innocent and a martyr. She was declared a national symbol of France, beatified by the Catholic Church in 1909 and canonized in 1920. She has been a muse and inspiration across art forms from her death until today.
Drag queens have entered the mainstream over the past 20 years – and drag kings are following suit, sweeping through our underground bars and across our cities and towns. JOAN playfully unpicks, knocks about and explores our notions of gender and questions our relation to gender identity today.
This is a fearless new one-person play about what it means to stand out, stand up and stand alone.
JOAN is part of Derby Theatre’s RETOLD series which cracks open the classics from the perspective of female characters, and is brought to Spalding in association with Transported.
The performance takes place at the Hole in the Wall pub, 9 Francis St, Spalding PE11 1AT, on Sunday 8 May at 7.30pm. Tickets are free.
JOAN from Milk Presents on Vimeo.
