VOICES OF JOAN Comes to Adelaide Fringe

Actor and Activist Janie Gibson began rehearsals for her Adelaide Fringe debut Voices Of Joan, whilst locked in a prison cell in Collinsville Queensland. Janie staged a theatrical blockade last Friday to protest the Adani Carmichael coal mine. Dressed as a mermaid, Gibson chained herself to a cattle grid to stop work on the mine and send a message to Adani and the Australian government that this mine is a carbon bomb that will accelerate catastrophic climate change. Her placard read: "Mythical Creatures: Mermaids & Honest Coal Barons".

Be it a case of life imitating art or art imitating life, Janie's new theatre work Voices Of Joan calls on the courage of rebel icon Joan of Arc to aid us in these dark times. In collaboration with Finnish director Anu Almagro (Song Of the Goat Theatre), the artists search for Joan's story in fragments of history, poetry, letters she wrote, plays written about her and the transcript of her trial for heresy. Described as a feminist punk ritual the artists bring Joan's word to life in unique sound portaits combining electronic scores with the raw expressivity of the human voice. With a portable radio as their 'time machine' the artists also tune into acts of courage and oppression throughout history, from Greta Thunberg to Rosa Parks, in search of a road map for resistance in our uncertain times.

The artists met in 2009 in Poland at Song Of the Goat Theatre, one of Europe's leading avant-garde theatre companies. Together they co-founded the Odra Ensemble (2011-2013) and are apart of the next generation of artists practicing in the lineage of Eastern European laboratory theatre and carrying the tradition forward with a radical new feminist voice.

"In our work we seek to reclaim ritual and bring audiences together through a shared experience of our humanity. In Joan's story we see a person with remarkable courage and conviction, but also a story of tragedy and loss. As humanity faces times of unprecedented uncertainty, in Voices Of Joan we are asking the questions: 'How to we meet the eyes of the threat we are facing? How do we stare into the face of death and be fully alive? How will we choose to live in these times? For us, Voices Of Joan is a spell, a lamentation and a call to action."

VOICES OF JOAN

When: March 6,7 & 8 2020 | 7:30pm (60mins)

Where: The Breakout @ The Mill | 154 Angas Street, Adelaide, South Australia 5000

Tickets: $25 Full | $20 Concession | BOOK TICKETS: https://adelaidefringe.com.au