{"id":6359,"date":"2017-01-25T07:53:12","date_gmt":"2017-01-25T12:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6359"},"modified":"2017-02-03T08:36:24","modified_gmt":"2017-02-03T13:36:24","slug":"saint-joan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6359","title":{"rendered":"Saint Joan"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Saint

Andrus Nichols & Eric Tucker in Saint Joan; photo: T. Charles Erickson<\/p><\/div>\n

Bedlam Theater Company is presenting, in rotating repertory productions, Shakespeare\u2019s Hamlet<\/em> and George Bernard Shaw\u2019s Saint Joan<\/em> at McCarter Theatre Center<\/a> in Princeton through February 12. Each of the plays is done with the same four cast members playing all the parts, which makes for some quick persona changes.<\/p>\n

Due to scheduling difficulties, I\u2019ve seen only the Saint Joan<\/em>\u2014a difficult choice, because Hamlet<\/em> is always revelatory, and the experience of each is meant to shed light on the other. As with any Shaw, a good twenty minutes near the end could be ditched. Good old G.B.S. seems determined to bang audiences over the head with his messages. Still, you\u2019ll never see a more vigorous interpretation of this work, one that easily keeps you going through a full three acts (in direct contradistinction to the growing trend for one-act, 90-minute affairs), as religious dogma and divine inspiration cross swords.<\/p>\n

The cast members manage to be simultaneously energetic and nuanced, and they wring every bit of humor out of the play\u2019s early scenes. Bedlam founder Eric Tucker was terrific in Saint Joan<\/em>, especially as the Earl of Warwick, but then all the actors (Andrus Nichols as Joan), Edmund Lewis and Tom O\u2019Keefe (both in numerous parts) keep your interest and your intellect on their toes. I\u2019m as much a fan of gorgeous sets and inspired costumes as anyone, but Bedlam\u2019s stripped-down, bare-stage version has the virtue of showing how brilliant actors can conjure people and relationships to life unaided.<\/p>\n

Bedlam has a commitment to using \u201call the house,\u201d and for Saint Joan<\/em>, the first few rows of audience seats were on the stage, and a cast member occasionally emerged from somewhere in the main house. Not to worry, audience members aren\u2019t called upon to do more than observe.<\/p>\n

Despite having been a patron of the Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Shaw Festival for more than 20 seasons I\u2019d never seen Saint Joan<\/em>. And, if you also feel this classic is worth getting to know, you might never find a more approachable and engaging mounting of it than this one.<\/p>\n

For tickets, call the McCarter box office at 609-258-2787, or visit the box office online<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bedlam Theater Company is presenting, in rotating repertory productions, Shakespeare\u2019s Hamlet and George Bernard Shaw\u2019s Saint Joan at McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton through February 12. Each of the plays is done with the same four cast members playing all … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Saint Joan - energetic and approachable production of Shaw's classic at McCarter Theatre Center","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[266,104,147,785],"tags":[813,422,749,814,129],"class_list":["post-6359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-the-morgue","category-theater","category-tragedy","tag-bedlam-theater-company","tag-george-bernard-shaw","tag-mccarter-theatre-center","tag-saint-joan","tag-wars-and-conflicts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-1Ez","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6359"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6361,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6359\/revisions\/6361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}