A 1975 rock opera by Dorothy Hewett describing the rise of a peasant girl, her betrayal, execution and ultimate canonisation.
It uses some of the same staging devices and covers some of the same themes as Hewett's The Chapel Perilous; when the independent and disruptive woman is put on trial.
Joan the Mad is examined in a trial by staff of a mental hospital, and relates her past.
[1] The 13 songs include “Poor brother king”, “I’m a witch I’m a bitch” and the repeated motif “We love you Joan”.
Ken Healey described the production as “a frenzy of sound and spectacle” employing a “skilful juxtaposition of opposites; sacred and profane, past and present, virgin and whore, judiciary and asylum”, with Joan presenting a “kaleidoscopically shattered personality”.
He particularly commended Jude Kuring’s performance as Joan the Witch as “monumental in towering menace”.