George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan – Dir: Grace Augustine: Q Theatre June 25, 2025 (13th Floor Theatre Review)

Saint Joan puts us into the mind of a young girl who led a revolution, to be betrayed by those her will and resolve had elevated. As the curtain closes on Flyleaf Theatre’s magnificently sparse re-creation of Bernard Shaw’s masterwork, an audience member behind us cried out, “Holy fuck!” I knew how she felt. We felt it too.

We enter a darkened arena with actors already milling around a slightly elevated platform. It feels like a boxing ring. Or an altar. Fire is foreshadowed in the branches that surround it, like kindling around a campfire. If we didn’t already know how Joan’s story ends, we’d know that, like Chekhov’s gun, this is going to go off.

But who doesn’t know the story, right?

The playwright’s craft then is not to tell us what we already know, but to tell us why. This is Shaw’s metier. Telling us why and for too long is what Shaw is too often accused of. Here, it is essential, and he and this cast make it dramatic. A tale of betrayal, of resentment at those who’ve placed us in positions of power, or forced us to be better than we want to be — of hatred of the good for being the good.

How long will it be, Shaw asks us at the end of his published play, before this earth will be ready to accept its saints? That’s the message that resonates.  This production had no need to ask it explicitly, their performance making tangible that implicit message.

Bronwyn Ensor brought a compelling power to her role. Her conviction was evident. Her persuasive strength was palpable even in the stalls, so much so we wanted to put down coat and hat and pick up sword to join her.

Against her simple strength, so hard to play well, were those she’d lionised who were to become her destroyers. We watched as her friends turned to enemies.  (And how common that is, right?)  We watched as the king she had crowned resented his elevation. (Dylan Underwood giving us the child as king.) Watched as the church fathers she had no use for resented their sidelining. (Justin Benn giving a haughty gravitas to the church leader, ignoring the “bells of God” that sound designer Laika Rountree subtly inserts.) Watched as too many others were too happy to condemn her simply because her simple virtue made them too uncomfortable.

Glueing the performance together is Mustaq Missouri’s multiple “character” roles, played brilliantly, from fumbling fool speaking uncomfortable truth, to the priest showing the sympathy a church itself wholly lacked.

Director Grace Augustine has assembled a cast and crew who’ve brought the Maid of Orleans back to life, and the themes it explores into life. Exploring the nature of faith and of miracles, debating gender roles, portraying feminine power, arguing nation-alism against theocracy, watching virtue weaponised against itself.

This is a lot to be delivered in one evening of theatre.

Theatre Peter

Presented by
Flyleaf Theatre Company

Creative Team
Directed by Grace Augustine
Produced by Charlie Underhill
Lighting Design by Tim Jansen
Sound Design by Laika Rountree
Stage Management by Victoria Gancheva

St Joan plays at Q Theatre from 25 June to 5 July.

Tickets and more info here.

Theatre Peter
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