REVIEWED BY AUDREY MUELLER
EDITED BY MIRANDA WILSON
Some of the most interesting and captivating original productions are performed in theatres found down dark alleys. Sainting Joan is one of them. After running around the back streets of St Kilda, I finally found Explosive Factory’s theatre. And I’m glad I did, because this original rock musical was exciting at every turn.
The narrative opens in the religious setting of Saint Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, where ghosts horde the stage singing the praise of Joan of Arc. Performers Bek Schilling, Caddie Ogle, James Colburn-Keogh, Gemma Caruana, Riley Street, and Britany Ng work as the ensemble ghosts, set the tone for the eerie post-mortality world. Bek Schilling soon presents recast as Isabelle D’Arc, delivering an exposition monologue. This perfectly establishes the characters and fictional world, allowing for the optimal audience understanding. One by one, each performer leaves their ghost embellishments behind being re-introduced as acquaintances of Joan of Arc, who all knew her during the Hundred Years’ War, such as King Charles VII and his court.
Every performer played their ensemble role and their supporting role excellently, switching demeanours and costumes flawlessly and embodying each character with ease. Gemma Caruana, Brittany Ng, and Caddie Ogle were standouts in this domain, having natural stage presence and awareness for the three to four characters they each played. The costume design by Hannah McGlinchey allowed for this logical transition between characters; embellishments of hats or glasses were easy to change and adequately distinguished the personas of each actor.
In the small theatre space with a relatively bare stage, made up only of a church arch, a lectern, and a chair. Stuti Ghosh’s colourful and dynamic lighting filled the space perfectly, constructing lighting suited to the emotions and character developments over each scene and narrative evolvements.
As the characters recount their memories with Joan, the audience is invited to see more deeply into the minds of these people, a perspective not usually offered by history books. Within each character’s own song, they recount their experience with Joan of Arc and reveal their attitudes and opinions of her. Each recount was well timed and in a coherent order. My personal highlights being ‘I’m Only the King’ and the ‘How Does She Know?’, both were memorable and performed vigorously. Additionally, refrains from the latter were placed cleverly within the narrative, elevated by tonal shifts to create deeper meaning. However, with minimal spoken dialogue the constant extravagant performance eventually lost its effectiveness and became overwhelming. Some more time to contemplate and reflect on the history through dialogue would have been appreciated.
The style of rock opera leant well into the grunge themes of the afterlife, often relating to gruesome themes of corruption, killing, war, and brutality. Writer, director and actor Abigail Banister-Jones, alongside assistant director Francesco Mandarino, brilliantly employed comedic relief through King Charles IV (Emerson Hansford), whose self-righteous and arrogant demeanour balanced against the show’s themes nicely.
Banister-Jones’ skilful directing and writing shines through the work, and her love for the history is evident and enthralling. However, in her role as Joan of Arc, her acting and stage presence was often disturbed by her breaking character, having personal interactions with audience members, and displaying out-of-character support for other performers while onstage. As the lead character, this broke audience immersion.
Despite this disruption in the play’s immersion, this musical captured the essence of storytelling and fun that original musical theatre should have. Sainting Joan is a delightfully enjoyable Friday night watch.
Sainting Joan was presented at Theatre Works Explosives Factory 20 – 30 May 2026.
AUDREY MUELLER is a second year arts student, majoring in creative writing and media communications. Her love for theatre was sparked in high school and she carries this passion into her uni work, performances, reviewing and sub-editing at Unimelb.
MIRANDA WILSON is a Master of Publishing, Editing and Creative Writing student at the University of Melbourne. She loves reading and writing, and her creative work has been published in Above Water.
The Dialog is supported by Union House Theatre
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