Saint Joan...

George Bernard Shaw’s masterpiece about Joan of Arc is having a stunning revival at the National Theatre.

The play may be 80-odd years old but its key theme of religious zeal (in the shape the holy-voice-hearing dressmaker, turned warrior, turned scapegoat, turned eventual saint) versus the state (in the shape of England, the Catholic church and the rival French barons) is perhaps even more relevant now than when it was first written.

Because in a modern age of Muslim suicide bombers and aggressive right-wing Christianity in the White House it begs the question: how does society react to religious fervour when it threatens to undermine the law – even when that religious fervour is devout?

The play itself is simple enough. A dressmaker named Joan hears messages from God and wins over the French barons, the church and the Dauphin in order to drive the English out of France. But when the French people begin to love her rather than the state and its apparatuses she becomes a problem and is eventually betrayed by those who once supported her and sold to the British, where she is burnt as a heretic.

Anne Marie Duff is superb in the title role. The Missus always rated Duff in Shameless (and pretty much everything else she’s been in) while I preferred her Shameless co-star Maxine Peake. But after seeing Duff live I think the Missus is right and Duff is the next Helen Mirren while Peake is probably a more talented version of the next Babs Windsor.

Paterson Joseph and Paul Ready are also good as the treacherous Bishop of Beauvois and the Dauphin but nobody puts a foot wrong. In fact it’s a testament to the entire ensemble that they manage, with some help from a spartan set and haunting music, to fill every inch of the huge Olivier stage.

It is three hours long but the time flew by. It’s one of those shows that makes you believe in the power of theatre again and makes you realise why the National is still a vital cultural institution. Go see…