Gemma Arterton in Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan is the loveliest Joan, the most flirtatious, the most seductive, the most girly, I have seen. The English want to burn her. Her nationalism is a threat to the feudal lords. She is winning too many battles and is bad for morale. The Roman Catholic Church wants her burnt because she is a serious threat. She acts as if she was the Church and wrecks the social order. Her death is a political necessity.
There are those who grumble that Shaw is all talk and no drama; but for those who enjoy a good debate, the famous trial scene and an earlier meeting, when Cauchon (Elliott Levey) and the Earl of Warwick (Jo Stone-Fewings) settle their differences, are intellectually and theatrically most satisfying. Warwick, who is very English, has a nice dry line in cynicism: “By all means do the best for her if you are quite sure it will be of no avail.” Fisayao Akinade’s Dauphin is the campest Dauphin since Kenneth Williams.