FOR IMMEDIATE RELASE: D'ARC VOICES: RETELLING THE STORY OF JOAN OF ARC
COMING TO THE FRINGE FESTIVAL JUNE 2015
8 PERFORMANCES
UNDERGROUND THEATER
1312 NORTH WILTON PLACE
HOLLYWOOD CA 90028
The year is 1428. The 100 years war is drawing to a close, and France’s future hangs in the balance. Her population has never recovered from the devastation of the plague, and France is on the verge of becoming history. Suddenly, a prophesy. Where it came from no one knows, but the gossip mills churn up and down the countryside of a Maiden from Lorraine, saving France.
Joan D’Arc claims to hear voices and experience visions. Coupled with the rumors of the Prophesy, Joan believes that she is indeed the Maiden from Lorraine. But there seems to be something more than religious fervency behind Joan’s obsession with all things Catholic. She seems drawn to, and identifies with the masculine gender role. She has been warned all her life starting with her mother that wearing men’s garments is against God’s natural order of things, and she is often sent to repent for her sins.
An obvious over-achiever Joan exhibits the classic symptoms of a person trying to justify how they choose to live, when their inherent nature goes against every “norm” of society. At first Joan wins the day and does save France from oblivion, but in the end her greatest asset in achieving what most believed impossible, destroys her. We all are familiar with the “pristine” version of the life of Joan D’Arc, but she was a real person with major struggles in the real world and in her own head. Was she in fact trans-gendered in a time when such things could not be comprehended?
Written by Craig Victor, with original cinematic score by Ariel Blumenthal, moving, rich performances by Eileen Rogers as Joan, and a first-rate ensemble cast, guided by the deft hand of director Steven Helgoth, the psyche of the extraordinary life of Joan D’Arc is examined in this powerful un-orthodox re-telling of her familiar story.
COMPS AVAILABLE WITH PRESS CREDENTIALS.
