Following a sell-out run at the 2016 Edinburgh Festival Fringe where it won a Scotsman Fringe First Award, The Stage Award and Spirit of the Fringe Award, Milk Presents is taking JOAN on tour. An earthy story of courage, conviction and hope, JOAN is performed by drag king champion Lucy Jane Parkinson in a show that sees history’s greatest gender-warrior dragging up as the men she defies.
Packed with guts and heart, this fearless solo play (with songs) asks what happens when a disguise becomes real and you have to fight for who you really are. Written and directed by Lucy J Skilbeck, the production takes us through the life of Joan of Arc from early adolescence – guided by Saint Catherine – to her death, burned at the stake at just 19, dressed in men’s clothing.
Skilbeck was the BBC Performing Arts Fellow for Derby Theatre 2013 and then went on to become a recipient of the BBC Legacy Fund. This spring, Lucy will direct a gender-fierce cast of queer identifying artists in Chekov’s The Bear/The Proposal at the Young Vic as a winner of the Genesis Future Directors Award. In an evening addressed to ladies, gentlemen and everyone in between, JOAN, history’s ultimate gender rebel, is brought to life by Lucy Jane Parkinson, known to cabaret audiences as LoUis CYfer, one of the scene’s foremost drag kings. The first king to ever win the UK national drag competiton Drag Idol UK.
Speaking about the production, Lucy J Skilbeck said, “I knew I wanted to write a drag king play, and when I first started researching, the drag king scene was much more underground than it is now. I started thinking about Joan of Arc and the relationship she had to male clothing and masculinity, and it all kicked off from there. Joan of Arc still stands as one of history’s most radical heroine’s. How did a 15th Century peasant girl defy their birth gender to lead a king’s army to reclaim a nation? Her incredible story has allowed me to open up fantastic and delicate discussions around gender with a really wide audience, from young people to grandparents, and Lucy’s cabaret charisma and unique performance makes Joan a wonderfully exciting 21st Century gender warrior”.
