Sainting Joan

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https://www.theatreworks.org.au/2026/sainting-joan

Date Reviewed: 22/05/2026

Writer and performer Abigail Banister-Jones takes us back in time and behind the scenes of the canonisation of the one and only Joan of Arc. This is not your typical history lesson, it is told through first person accounts, important ghostly figures, a devil's advocate and on the battle lines, all through the beat of a punk rock soundtrack. As audiences enter the theatre seats, the band of strings, drums and keys, tucked away behind a cathedral archway, set the beat to the musical. Edgy, cheeky and rebellious.

The performance unfolds as we are introduced to different characters that intersected with Joan's life, from family to generals to bishops to kings. All are called into account of their testimony of a humble peasant girl from Domrémy, northeast France. The strength of this piece is in the unique portrayal and musical styles associated with each of the characters, whereby their personal flair brings to light the conflict they endured and the encounters with Joan they faced. To saint or not to saint? Tormented by guilt, grief or inspired by hope and courage. We are taken for a ride of the short-lived life and perseverance of Joan.

The cast portray multiple characters, their songs, dance and scripts weaving seamlessly and harmoniously through each scene transition. With minimal props there is nowhere to hide, bringing raw talent front and centre. We are drawn deep into the personalities behind each retelling, pulled into the tension as if we were there ourselves. The energy of this ensemble is infectious and you are on the edge of your seat, riding every beat of the emotional rollercoaster.

A clever interplay with time underpins the entire architecture of Sainting Joan. Banister-Jones structures the canonisation hearing not merely as a courtroom drama of the past, but as vivid vignettes across the hundred year war. The ghosts assembled in Saint Peter's Basilica are not simply relics of history, they are mirrors, reflecting back the same power struggles, the same institutional suspicion of female conviction, the same impulse to contain and categorise what cannot be easily controlled. Joan's story, told this way, refuses to stay buried in the fifteenth century.

Banister-Jones has constructed something genuinely bold here like a rock opera that wears its influences proudly, from the grandeur of Jesus Christ Superstar to a side of The Ramones and Nick Cave, yet it finds its own distinct voice. The cheekiness promised is delivered between rock anthems as a weapon against the forces that would flatten a complex young woman into a convenient symbol. Before Joan was a saint, as Banister-Jones reminds us, she was a child and it is that fiercely human Joan who burns brightest at the centre of this gutsy, electric, thoroughly alive production.

Reviewed by Sandra Lee