Teenage Dream

Mother of the Maid – Northlgiht Theatre

As with the musical “Titanic,” the audience attending Jane Anderson’s latest play knows pretty much how this story about Joan of Arc is going to end. It’s the journey to the tragic climax that makes all the difference. The author of “The Baby Dance” and “Defying Gravity”, applies a unique approach with this  mythic legend. She tells the story from the perspective of Isabelle d’Arc, Joan’s peasant mother. Isabelle pops in and out of the drama, sometimes acting as an omniscient observing narrator, but most often as a concerned mother and farmer’s wife. The dialogue is often anachronistic, sometimes employing present-day mannerisms, contemporary phrases and unexpected four-letter words. The result is the backstory of Saint Joan, told with a modern flair.   

Anderson makes her Maid of Orleans accessible to 21st century theatergoers, telling Joan’s story as if she was simply a typical teenage girl. The playwright depicts the future saint in her rural  home, portraying her as an average adolescent who lacks patience with her family. She bickers with her mother, continually defies her stern father and enjoys teasing and tormenting her older brother. Conversations about everyday, 15th century topics, like farming chores, aspirations and dreams, teenage boys and the world around her occupy Joan’s day. But lately the teenager’s been having visions in which St. Catherine speaks to her, telling her that it’s God’s will that she lead an army to drive the English out of France. Isabelle thinks it might just be her daughter’s raging adolescent hormones speaking, but she soon surrenders to the notion that Joan has a loftier future in store.

As always at Northlight, the cast for this production is a glorious amalgamation of talent and truthfulness. The transcendent Kate Fry, who starred here in “The Beauty Queen of Leenane” and “Outside Mullingar,” is perfectly cast as Isabelle. The actress plays this woman as an average woman—a mother, a lower class farmer’s wife, who spends each day cleaning, cooking meals and spinning wool into yarn. She also worries a lot about her children, particularly her only daughter. Isabelle’s concerned that Joan seems especially distant lately and isn’t interested in the neighbor boys or in marriage. When Joan finally confesses to her mother that she’s been having visions in which St. Catherine speaks to her, Isabelle initially scoffs at her proclamation. But when their local priest, Father Gilbert (nicely played by Ricardo Gutierrez), supports Joan’s claim, Isabelle gives in and stands behind her daughter’s religious ambitions. 

Ms. Fry nicely balances this warmhearted woman’s skepticism with a mother’s moral support and fierce championship. But it’s in the final scene where Ms. Fry truly shines. Isabelle returns to the prison cell to be with and care for Joan in her final moments. She tenderly washes and dresses her, while trying to soothe and calm her little girl by providing some comfort, knowing that  Joan’s about to be put to death. It’s this moment of bravery that hits home for anyone who’s ever had to be valiant for a child or loved one at a difficult time. Ms. Fry leaves the audience moved to tears.

Grace Smith is wonderful as Joan. She’s honest, tough and defiant as the Maid of Orleans, yet she offers an occasional peek at Joan’s underlying vulnerability. Ms. Smith portrays a real teenage girl, exasperated with a family who doesn’t fully appreciate what she wants to accomplish. When Joan finally journeys to the castle of the Dauphin, Grace confidently enters the stage dressed in silver and white, bathed in a beam of heavenly light, as if blessed by God. Joan has left her life as a farmer’s daughter behind and has become a star. She clearly loves her celebrity and power, as well as the divine opportunity to save her people from the inhumane English. But, together with Kate Fry, it’s in Ms. Smith’s final moments, chained and covered in filth, where she breaks our heart.

Enjoyed on practically every other Chicago stage, the talented Kareem Bandealy makes his debut at Northlight Theatre playing  Jacques d’Arc, Joan’s authoritarian father. He portrays an unsympathetic character who’s always scolding his wife, beating his daughter when she displeases him, and even chaining Joan to her bed so she won’t disobey. But, after Joan has been burned at the stake, it’s in Bandealy’s heartbreaking monologue when we change our mind about this man’s love for his daughter. He relates how he bribed the clergy so he could stand close to his daughter as she died, so that she might be comforted by his presence. 

Casey Morris, who also appeared in Northlight’s “The Beauty Queen of Leenane,” plays Pierre d’Arc as the typical older brother. He’s all boy and his father’s son. Pierre loves to aggravate his sister, enjoying any opportunity to provoke Joan into an argument or a down-and-out fight. But when he finally accepts Joan’s calling as an unlikely military hero, Morris decides to help her learn how to wield a sword. Then he turns into that envious kid who hopes to achieve his own celebrity by riding on the coattails of his sister. Eventually Pierre gets to live it up in the castle, where Joan now resides, albeit in his sister’s shadow. 

Seen recently in Northlight’s rousing “Into the Breeches!” Penelope Walker returns to play Nicole, a Lady of the Court. As a noblewoman, she’s obsessed with Joan’s celebrity. Nicole demonstrates her adoration by washing Isabelle’s feet after the woman has walked 300 miles to visit her daughter at the castle. Like Isabelle, Nicole is also a mother. Despite being a woman of privilege, she’s trying to raise her daughters “to care about deeper things,” and not just become empty-headed, entitled young women. Ms. Walker plays this woman with sincerity and sympathy, someone who does all she can to relate to this peasant woman and who means well. In the end, however, all this Lady of the Court can offer Isabelle are her empty thoughts and prayers.

Directed with an empathy for his characters and a talent for dynamic storytelling through great stage pictures, BJ Jones has guided his cast through most of this story as if it waere a comic drama. Yet, despite his attention to the humor early on, Jones never loses sight of the fact that his play will ultimately end as a tragedy. He’s staged his production on Scott Davis’ perfectly detailed 1412 scenic design, comprised of massive wooden beams and slatted walls of roughhewn timber that reveal floating shelves of candles and drawbridges that cautiously drop to enable a character’s entrance. The acting space is both the farmer’s hovel and the king’s castle, lit perfectly by Christine A. Binder. Izumi Inaba has designed the appropriate medieval costumes for her cast that might’ve been researched at the Bristol Renaissance Faire, but manage to look properly authentic.

There are many stunning scenes in this captivating, modernistic backstory of Joan of Arc that both amuse and enlighten. She’s  presented in a way that makes the Maid of Orleans seem like a real adolescent girl, and not just some obscure historical character from long ago. Lacing her play with contemporary dialogue, Jane Anderson makes her story accessible, especially for younger audiences. 

There’s a moment in the play when Isabelle finally sees her daughter as the religious military hero that Joan is destined to become. The girl enters in a shaft of light, her hair closely cropped, and dressed in gleaming armor. Isabelle falls to her knees, overcome with pride and love for her daughter; and Joan knows that she has the approval of this simple, adoring woman who finally understands her daughter’s teenage dreams and appreciates the strong, young woman that Joan has become.

Highly Recommended

Reviewed by Colin Douglas

Presented September 12-October 20 by Northlight Theatre, 9501 Skokie Blvd., Skokie, IL.

Tickets are available in person at the box office, by calling 847-673-6300 or by going to www.northlight.org.

Additional information about this and other area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com.