St. Joan of Arc, Big Macs & Meg Roe
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
St. Joan of Arc: Shall
I arise from the dead and come back to you, a living woman?
Warwick: Rome
made you a saint, we had no hand in the business. Let Rome decide.
Cauchon: Stay where
you are, woman. A dead saint is always safer for the Church than a living one...
 |
| Meg Roe |
There are some people
who go to Macdonald’s and yet cannot abide the Big Macs. They might tell you
that they go for the fries. And I cannot fault them.
In the same way you
may not want to spend the money to go to the theatre. You might be persuaded to
do so only if the play is an experimental one or at the opposite extreme one
that is tried and true. You might then want to go to see It’s a Wonderful Life
this season. As far as I know if that is your decision you will be out of luck.
On the other hand you
might want to go to see a play that is rarely performed. Such a play is George
Bernard Shaw’s St. Joan. and Arts Club Theatre Company presentation at the Stanley. Should you want to see the 1957 film version
directed by Otto Preminger, starring Jean Seberg your only game in town is a
VHS recording at Limelight Video on Broadway and Alma. Not even the Vancouver
Public Library has it.
St. Joan, starring Meg
Roe and a long cast of who’s who Vancouver
thespians is having a few more performances until this Sunday, November 23. There
is a matinee this Saturday at 2 plus an evening performance and a matinee on
Sunday.
Why am I telling you
this?
For many years writer
Les Wiseman and I would go to rock concerts at the Commodore (Wiseman had a
Vancouver Magazine column called In One Ear to which I contributed as a
photographer). Because we were snobs we would sometimes go to see the excellent
warm-up act and then skip (over a beer) the headliners.
You might not be religious and not interested in plays with a religious content. You might have all kinds of other excuses not to see St. Joan but as Wiseman always told me, paraphrasing Hunter S. Thompson, “As your attorney I strongly suggest you see this.” Wiseman was always right.
My reason for suggesting
St. Joan is simply that you want to watch a
virtuoso acting performance which will be remembered for many years.
