Saint Joan is a play by George Bernard Shaw about the 15th-century French military figure Joan of Arc. It is divided into six scenes and a final epilogue. It was first produced in New York in December 1923 and opened in London three months later.
Written after Joan's canonisation by the Roman Catholic Church, the play depicts her progress from peasant girl to military leader, her subsequent trial for heresy and her execution.
The central role of Joan was written for the actress Sybil Thorndike but it was Shaw's usual practice between 1920 and the mid-1930s to have his plays premiered by the Theatre Guild in New York. Winifred Lenihan was cast as Joan in the guild's production. Thorndike played the role in the London premiere three months later, and in three revivals over the next seven years.
The play reflects Shaw's belief that the people involved in Joan's trial acted according to what they thought was right.
Background
Shaw's vociferous objection to Britain's entry into the First World War had made him widely unpopular, His next production, Back to Methuselah (written between 1918 and 1920), a cycle of five interrelated plays, had only a short run. Shaw felt he had exhausted his remaining creative powers in the huge span of this "Metabiological Pentateuch". He was in his late sixties and he expected to write no more plays. His interest in writing for the theatre was revived when, in May 1920, Pope Benedict XV proclaimed Joan a saint. Shaw had long found Joan an interesting historical character, and his view of her veered between "half-witted genius" and someone of "exceptional sanity". He had considered writing a play about her in 1913, and the canonisation prompted him to return to the subject. He wrote Saint Joan in the middle months of 1923.
Premieres
Saint Joan was first performed by the Theatre Guild company at the Garrick Theatre, New York, on 28 December 1923. It ran there for 215 performances. The West End premiere was at the New Theatre on 26 March 1924. It ran for 244 performances.
thumb|upright|Cover of 1924 edition of the playscript|alt=Book cover depicting elongated female figure in medieval costume
[[Charles Ricketts's design for Trémouille's costume, 1924|thumb|upright|alt= painting of a large man in elaborate medieval costume]]
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Shaw described the play as "Tragedy not Melodrama";
Criticism
thumb|alt=Gold-coloured statue of a woman in men's armour, on horseback, carrying a standard in her right hand|[[Jeanne d'Arc (Frémiet)|Jeanne d'Arc statue at Place des Pyramides, Paris by Emmanuel Frémiet, 1874]]
After the British premiere the journalist J. M. Robertson reacted to the play by arguing that it was highly inaccurate, especially in its depiction of medieval society. The Stage commented that Shaw: