About

Soup Can Theatre is excited to announce the return of HERETIC; a modern theatrical retelling of the story of Joan of Arc from rising indie star, Sarah Thorpe (Love is a Poverty You Can Sell, Marat/Sade, No Exit). After presenting a critically-acclaimed workshop production in April 2015, Thorpe has revised and developed the work and will once again take to the stage to bring one of history’s most compelling and emblematic characters to life in a new and expanded production.

While only a young teenager, Joan of Arc (the anglicized version of her proper name, Jeanne D’Arc), the illiterate daughter of modest peasants, began to hear what she believed to be divine voices who instructed her to lead the French forces against the English in the ongoing Hundred Year’s War. With many of her countrymen convinced of her claim to be a force sent by God, she was embraced by the nobility and the military elite, and became both a leader on the front lines of battle – donning the same masculine garments and armour as her male counterparts – and an inspirational figurehead across France. After making pivotal gains against the English, she was ultimately captured and charged with heresy for her declarations of supernatural communication – and for wearing men’s clothes. Despite putting up an impassioned and theologically profound defense, she was found guilty by the English-led court and burned at the stake, forever cementing her status as a martyr and a legend.

HERETIC illuminates this iconic character in a fresh new light by presenting Joan not as a religious saint or zealot, but as a complex and headstrong yet fallible young woman who dared to declare herself an equal, challenged the patriarchal power structure of the time, and remained unwavering in her principles despite the ultimate consequences.

Praise for HERETIC:

“A Stunning One-Woman Show that Picks your Brain” – The Theatre Reader

“A Fantastic Performance … Gritty, Ambitious, and Raw” – Broadway World

“Bold … Thorpe is Compelling … One of the Many Reasons I Love Indie Theatre” – The Slotkin Letter

#HereticTO