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An interview with Jehanne of the Witches director; Thrasso Petras

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By Angela Espinoza, Arts Editor

ith Dancing at Lughnasa
wrapping up this week,
the next production on the

Douglas College bill is Vancouver
playwright Sally Clark’s Jehanne of
the Witches. Jehanne, which premieres
this Saturday, is directed by Thrasso
Petras, who returns from directing
Twelfth Night earlier this year. Thrasso
took time between rehearsals last week
to talk with us about the upcoming
performance. :

Were you familiar with Sally Clark
going into this?

Sally Clark is somebody I’ve
admired for a long, long time. When
I was in acting school, one of her
most famous plays, Moo, was making
the rounds, and ever since then I’ve
really loved her work. So when the
opportunity presented itself to work on
one of her pieces, I didn’t even read it
right away; any Sally Clark, I'll do it.

Her writing appears simple at
first—it’s really accessible—and at
the same time there’s just tons of
information layered within. It’s kind
of like a blend between Shakespeare
and The West Wing: it’s contemporary,
it’s clever, it’s fast, but you keep
discovering more and more [as] you
work on it; it’s very challenging to do.

What particularly is Jehanne of the
Witches about?

Jehanne is basically the story
of Joan of Arc, but it’s told from the
perspective of Gilles de Rais, one of
her closest companions. After she died,
he became very obsessed with her—he
wanted her power: to figure out what the
secret was [to], hearing these voices—
[something] he was never able to [do].

[Gilles is] a very complex character;
he was an alleged serial killer, he was
gay, he was sleeping with children—he
doesn’t make a good sidekick for a
saint. [But] in 1992, [Gilles’] case was
re-opened in France, and the court found
that there was no evidence to actually
prove he killed any children, and that he
was probably the victim of a conspiracy.
He’d spent the majority of his money
putting on this play about [Joan] after
she died, and it was an enormous play
with hundreds of extras and everyone
had a new costume every day—he was
really bleeding money. So his enemies
wanted to staunch the flow, because
ultimately that money could be going
towards the king or the state or whatever
they [wanted] to fund: that might’ ve
been something behind the conspiracy.

If you look at [a lot] of the movies
and plays about Joan, [sometimes] he’s
a very minor character; sometimes he’s
just not there at all. [Jehanne of the
Witches] basically puts him in the centre
of [everything, which] makes [Joan] a
real person [instead of just] a ‘saint.’
Saint stories are usually very black

: ;

and white, because it’s all about the
message that the church is putting out
in terms of what they want you to take
from this person’s life. In this play you
get to choose what to take, and because
we’re depicting real people, there are
going to be things that you associate
with and [in turn] things you’re repulsed
by. It takes these people and gives
them real relationships, [instead of] just
[presumptions].

Why Jehanne of the Witches?

Mostly because of Sally Clark, I
literally just said, “I'll do it,” and then
read it after. [But it’s] also about the
symbolism of a saint: I like this idea of
looking behind the mask. What [Gilles]
symbolizes [is] a monster— [but] no
one is black and white in that way.
Ultimately I think when breaking down
a play, you’re looking for the universal
aspects that [people] can connect
to, [whether it’s] the ugly things in
monsters we don’t like admitting [or]
the things in saints that we want to
aspire to and might never reach. It’s
looking behind what the symbol is.

Considering the play’s subject matter,
how have the actors taken to it?

Pretty good, we have a variety of
backgrounds in the cast, so everyone
comes to it with their own perspective.
Some of them have some form of faith
or religion and others not so much. Like
any good play [though], it’s about this
idea of really specific relationships, and

 

that’s what is always complex: breaking
that down and thinking about it— what
[does] ‘best friend’ mean to you? [As
for myself,] I feel, as I’ve gotten older,
I’m more apt to analyze what my
relationships are with people, so I’m
already stepping into the situation with
a critical mind about relationships.

What cami we expect to take out of
this rendition then?

Whether I’m acting or directing, I
always want people to walk away from
plays asking questions. With [Jehanne
of the Witches], if you are Catholic or
you know the history, whether you want
to call it miraculous or not, it happened.
So [we want the] people [going] into it
[who] might already know the story to
[leave] with [a new] perspective [and
appreciation] of history.

I don’t want to feed people all the
answers; the minute you start feeding
people information, they just shut
down. If you can [find] the balance
[between] giving clear information and
raising questions, then [the audience *
is] going to be watching something
engaging.

What: Jehanne of the Witches

Where: Douglas College, New West
campus, Laura C. Muir Theatre

When: November 12-19 @ 7:30

p.m. (Noon and 2 p.m. matinees on
respective dates)

Cost: Students, Seniors and Matinees—
$8; General Admission—$12