In London, a theater stages a “non-binary” Joan of Arc
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In the play performed from August 25 at the Globe Theater, the actress will only use neutral pronouns to interpret the historical figure of the Hundred Years War.
“The possibility of another point of view“. This is how the management of the Globe Theater in London explains its choice to represent Jeanne D’Arc neither man nor woman on the boards from August 25th. In this new piece entitled “Me, Jane“, the Maid of Domrémy, historical figure and venerated as a saint by Catholics, will appear as a character”non-binary“. Isobel Thom, who will interpret it, will only use neutral pronouns “they(they) and “them(their) to designate his interlocutors. And they will do the same with her.
Joan of Arc, shepherdess Lorraine, was 18 years old when she took up arms to defend the King of France Charles VII, in the middle of the Hundred Years’ War, before being burned at the stake in 1431. According to Charlie Josephine , author of the play and herself “non binary“, the one called the “maid of Orleans” is “this working-class young person who transgressed gender, at a time when it was really dangerous“.
“The theaters do not deal with a historical reality»
“History has provided countless wonderful examples of Joan portrayed as a woman. This production simply offers the possibility of another point of view“says in turn Michelle Terry. The artistic director of this Shakespearean theatre, a replica of the one where the playwright officiated in the 16the century, on the south bank of the Thames, declared moreover not to be among the first “to present Jeanne in this way, and we will not be the last“.
This reading of the historical figure is also in line, she argues, with that of the Oxford English Dictionary, which traces the use of the pronoun “theyincluding for a singular person from the year 1375, long before Joan of Arc. “The theaters do not deal with a historical reality“, she defends, they “produce coins, and in coins everything can be possible“.
The former master of the place, still affirms Michelle Terry, would have approved this version of the saint. “Shakespeare did not write historically accurate plays. He took characters from the past to ask questions about the world around him“, argues Michelle Terry. “Our writers today make no difference whether it is Ann Boleyn, Nell Gwynn, Aemilia Bassano, Edward II or Joan of Arc. The Globe is a place of imagination. A place where, for a short time, one can at least envision the possibility of other worlds“.
This reading is not unanimous. Frank Furedi, emeritus professor at the University of Kent quoted by the British daily The Times, fears that the piece is an opportunity to “rewrite history“. “Someone like Joan of Arc would have no idea what it’s like to be non-binary. It’s a rebranding of something that didn’t even exist back then.“, he says, calling the project “upside down fantasy“.
SEE ALSO – The passport to a non-binary ‘X’ gender, open to everyone in the United States
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