In the trial of Jeanne, Judith Chemla valiant in jeans d’Arc

Fers on the feet, hands along the body, inhabited look, in jacket and pants, Joan of Arc, embodied by Judith Chemla, is pale, but stands straight. Digne and proud of the 19th birthday, the Domrémy’s virgin must answer for its sins before its judges, including the inflexible bishop of Beauvais Pierre Cauchon (Jacques Bonnaffé, unrecognizable, like Jean-Claude Drouot in the canon of Rouen). They keep seeing this « heretic » Abjure his convictions. Sure of being in his right, his faith in God pegged to the soul, Joan does not allow herself to be impressed. Guided by his « voice »she stands up to her accusers. She saw others. Dressed in a man’s habit, head of an army, she chased the English outside of France by brandishing the standard of victory.

His sense of humor prevents him from sinking into despair when Cauchon threatens to deliver it to the Count of Warwick who has already planned to burn her long. « In what figure was Saint Michel, when he appeared to you ? »asks the bishop. « I do not see him a crown ; And his clothes, I don’t know anything »answers Jeanne simply. « Was he naked ? », Resumes the twisted inquisitor. « Do you think God has nothing to dress ? »retorts Jeanne in a half-sourire.

Tightened booklet on the essentials

Touched by grace, magnified by the place, the theater of northern puffs frozen in time, Judith Chemla has something antigone and nina in The seagull. She lends Jeanne her valor, her disarming naturalness, her obstinacy and her truth. « I do not fear people of war because I have my way all flattened »she says. The actress plays and sings divinely. The young Christian is crushed by the men of the Church who appear above her, making an accusing look at her conduct. If they impose them in their rich clothes, they will remain helpless in front of this peasant who listens only to her saints. Their policy reduced to zero by its innocence, they condemn it to the stake.

With the director Yves Beaunesne and the composer Camille Rocailleux, Judith Chemla has developed a show that will mark the history of the theater: Jeanne’s trial, According to the minutes of the condemnation trial of Joan of Arc – 1431, Of which the playwright Marion Bernède pulled a tightened booklet on the essentials. In the program distributed to the public, a lexicon explains the vocabulary used (« Yawn », « Closed »…). Judith Chemla is accompanied by six singing musicians, such as Jeanne’s solidarity choir in her misfortune.

After The announcement made to Marie according to the work of Paul Claudel, their previous show, the same trio of artists has given birth to a « forms of oratory »combining theater, song, music and videos, which Pierre Nouvel has arranged as so many paintings to represent the judges. The scenographer Damien Caille-Perret transformed the theater of the bouffes from north to court. Judith Chemla evolves in the center of an octagonal track dominated by the judges who intervene on a screen of the same form. Joan of Arc has no chance of getting out of it. It is a justicier, a heroic and free rebel that will remain in our memory for a long time.

Jeanne’s trial, Aux bouffes du Nord (Paris 10^e)until 16 FEBRUARY. Then on tour.