“Saint Joan” at Citizens Theatre, Glasgow
Mark Brown on Clydeside
★★★★☆
22 February 2026
Stewart Laing – the auteur theatre-maker behind such memorable shows as The Salon Project, Paul Bright’s Confessions of a Justified Sinner and Slope – is a champion of a form of directorial invention that is commonplace in continental Europe, but less prominent in the nations of the UK. One often hears cultural conservatives on the continent yearning for a “British theatre” that prioritises reverence of the text.
Photo credit: Mihaela Bodlovic.
Laing, by contrast, was a child of the Citizens Theatre in the period of the great, decidedly European directorial triumvirate of Giles Havergal, Philip Prowse and Robert David MacDonald. Indeed, Laing rose to prominence and acclaim as a stage designer, having benefitted from Prowse’s mentorship.
Little surprise, then, that Laing’s self-described “reinvention” of George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan dispenses with both period design and deference to the original script. Instead his young actors tell the story of the medieval French martyr Joan of Arc on a stark white stage.
The uniformly excellent cast have the kind of attire – hoodies, sweatshirts, tracksuit bottoms and training shoes – that can be purchased on any contemporary high street. The set is empty, save for a large, movable panel that sometimes operates as a film screen and a tall metal stand that is topped by a huge light that inflates and deflates as required.
Martin O’Connor – the dramatist, poet and performer who is the senior member of this youthful cast – takes on the role of the chorus/narrator (typically of the six-strong ensemble, he also plays multiple characters in the Joan story). As chorus he sets himself aside from the dialogue describing moments from the drama as if created for a film (“the camera pans across the battlefield” and the like).
Five male actors play the no fewer than 17 men (French and English) who, in various ways, seal the fate of Joan. The hero herself is rendered with innocence, courage and implacable certainty by the extraordinary Mandipa Kabanda (a young Scottish actor who is making her professional stage debut here).
Photo credit: Mihaela Bodlovic.
The modernist frame in which Laing sets the play has the (no doubt intended) effect of creating a certain, reflective distance between the drama and the audience member. One is put in mind of Bertolt Brecht’s project to establish a distancing (or “alienation”) in an audience’s relationship with the work on stage, in the hope that the viewer will come to a deeper political and philosophical truth.
Although the piece plays at 90 minutes without an interval, it takes a definite turn between the Siege of Orleans and Joan’s inquisition by the French Catholic hierarchy. Joan insists that God talks to her without requiring the services of the clergy as intermediary. This, needless to say, the Church considers the heresy of a Devil-possessed witch.
As the male actors put on furry smock hoodies (which stand in well for the habits of inquisitorial monks), Kabanda’s Joan appears among them in modern day school uniform. This representation in no way trivializes the threats and brutality of the inquisition.
On the contrary, Laing’s defamiliarizing of the historical context renders the scene all the more compelling. Joan becomes a universal figure, redolent of the girls and young women who have, defiantly and heroically, taken up leading roles in struggles for justice around the world, from the international movement against climate chaos to struggles in such diverse nations as Palestine, Sudan and India.
This latter point is reinforced by a closing short film created by actor, playwright and filmmaker Adura Onashile. This is political theatre that draws, not only on the original script, but also on modernist theatre traditions that were still emerging when Saint Joan was first performed in 1923. It’s not that much of a supposition to think that Bernard Shaw himself would have approved heartily.
At the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow until 28 February, then touring until 21 March: www.rawmaterialarts.com
