The Week on Stage: From I, Joan to Horse Play

Edinburgh Fringe is over for another year, which means the London theatre scene is coming back to life again after the summer.

This week, we checked out two new plays: I, Joan at Shakespeare’s Globe, and Horse-Play at Riverside Studios.

Join us next week for the verdicts on The Glass Menagerie at the Royal Exchange in Manchester and the new Ivo van Hove show, Who Killed My Father?, at the Young Vic.

Horse-Play – Riverside Studios ★★★☆☆

Typical, eh: you organise an evening of fun in a sex dungeon with your partner and an escort, then someone hits their head and you all accidentally get locked inside overnight. For couple Tim (David Ames) and Tom (Jake Maskall), this unexpected turn of events marks an unforgettable point in their decade-long relationship. Meanwhile, for sex worker Karl (Matt Lapinskas), getting trapped with the couple he’s been hired to entertain teaches him more about himself than he’d previously cared to explore.

open image in gallery

In many ways, Ian Hallard’s Horse-Play is simply a fun caper about a group of very different people who bond during a bizarre circumstance. Tim and Tom feel like a familiar couple – on the surface, opposites, but with a warmth and chemistry that assures us of a loving, shared history. And the play’s sexual brazenness is refreshing. Within minutes, we’re introduced to all manner of instruments and toys, with no sheen of shame attached to various kinks.

But with the play set solely in the dungeon, the stationary aspect is hard to overcome. As the characters feel increasingly frustrated with their situation, so does the audience – there’s only so long that watching nothing happen can feel fulfilling. Slick delivery is needed in order to keep things engaging, meaning that every occasional line flub or awkward joke phrasing is felt. Perhaps this is something that’ll solve itself as the run continues and the performers feel more familiar with the material. Overall, the play is still bonkers enough to be a good time – even if parts could do with a little lubricant. Nicole Vassell

I, Joan – Shakespeare’s Globe ★★★★☆

“There’s nothing wrong with being a girl… except if you’re not,” says Isobel Thom’s Joan of Arc. It’s a blazing statement to those who condemned the Globe’s I, Joan – in which the French martyr is non-binary – as misogynistic. But let’s make it clear: this is no gender studies lecture, but a funny and fierce work of theatre. Think the words “non-binary Joan of Arc” pissed off Daily Mail readers? They ain’t seen nothing yet.

Joan greets us and welcomes us into 15th-century France, but not the one we know. King-to-be Charles (a joyous Jolyon Coy) is a petulant, foot-stamping, tennis white-wearing brat, bolstered by advisors who agree with everything he says. Then he hears word that a girl (as they believe Joan to be) is amassing followers by claiming to have been sent from God to lead France in the war against England. Joan’s army may be kitted out like an Urban Outfitters shop window, but they fight in powerful, united dance.

open image in gallery

In I, Joan, gender is explored both directly and with more subtlety. Thomas tries to keep Joan level-headed, imploring they “give people time to catch up”. Later, he screams at them in hot-faced anger that “not all of us can have the luxury of revolution”.

The combination of Thom’s charm and energy and Josephine’s script keep the play from feeling preachy. The only time the script loses me is in one of Joan’s final monologues, where Twitter and bathrooms are mentioned. But as the heavens open and rain falls for Joan’s final speech, it’s hard not to be won back round. “F*** your historically accurate,” Joan shouts, met with hollers of an audience profoundly moved. Isobel Lewis

Read the full review.