For writer, performer and theatre maker Janie Gibson, her upcoming one-woman show, Voices of Joan, has been a long time coming.
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A story about courage, failure, and finding inner strength in the face of adversity, in the performance Gibson searches for Joan's story in fragments of words throughout history. With monologue, anecdote, costume changes, sword fighting, music and mayhem, Gibson discovers a Joan with a myriad of voices.
"It's an ancient story about gender, truth and power with startling reverberations today," Gibson says.
Born and bred in Newcastle, Gibson has studied and worked in theatre all over the world. During the pandemic she returned to her hometown, where she started her own professional theatre company, Whale Chorus. Since she's made this move, she's found more work in her field than she ever did where she previously worked in Melbourne.
Gibson was first inspired to create this show when she saw a production of Saint Joan by George Bernard Shaw in New York. Weeping in the theatre, she was overcome with emotion. Immediately she started researching plays about the patron saint of France, Joan of Arc, who defended her country from England and was later burnt at the stake in 1431.
"She comes up in Shakespeare, a lot of artists have been inspired by her," Gibson says.
Then Gibson started reading the transcript of her trial; she said they are some of the most detailed accounts in ancient history.
"Some playwrights had missed things in her story, like the possibility that she was raped in her cell, the overtones of assault and gender and misogyny in her story," Gibson says.
She decided she had to write her own version.
Some playwrights had missed things in her story, like the possibility that she was raped in her cell, the overtones of assault and gender and misogyny in her story.
- Janie Gibson on Joan of Arc
"It's quite experimental, not a traditional theatre performance," she says.
Gibson plays a variety of characters including herself searching for Joan's story and the bishop that tried her.
The play has changed over the years.
"I wrote a very early version of it way back in 2015 for the Next Wave Festival. That version had another actor, but for me that version wasn't quite right," Gibson says.
She redeveloped it in 2019 as a solo performance and reframed the storytelling. Her director and co-collaborator is Finnish artist Anu Almagro, and the two reworked the solo version while attending a residency in Spain.
Since then they've performed it in development stages at both the Melbourne and Adelaide Fringe, but, due to COVID and other conflicts, it's been postponed seven times in four years.
"We did it in Sydney and that was at an experimental season at The Flying Nun, and that was great, but that didn't have the staging and production values," she says.
This July Almagro came out to Australia to work with her. They two worked with a lighting and sound designer, and now Voices of Joan is ready to go.
The show is one of many creative events that are a part of City of Newcastle's New Annual Festival, and it will premiere at the end of September, with a preview show on Wednesday, September 27, and then a four-night run September 28 through October 1.
As well as writing, producing and acting, Gibson had to create a theatre for the show. She searched the city, looking at over 25 potential options. She kept getting told no, until at last she found New Lambton Community Centre.
She liked the iconic venue because of the building's charm and suitability. She also has connections to New Lambton. Her grandfather would attend social dances at the venue, and her father grew up in New Lambton.
Now the space is used for dance classes, yoga and Taekwondo; it's not your typical theatre space. Gibson plans to use it in multiple capacities, and she's particularly excited about an Inner Power Workshop she'll hold after the final Sunday matinee.
The workshop will feature a panel with women and gender diverse participants. (Registration is required.) The workshop is an ancillary program sponsored by SBR in New Lambton.
"The motivation for that project was to not only do a show but create more of a cultural conversation around the themes of the work: courage, women's voices, speaking truth to power," Gibson says. "I am always interested in this intersection between theatre, art, activism and social change."
Tickets for the show and workshop at newannual.com.
