Voices of Joan

Janie Gibson and Anu Almagro

A feminist punk ritual that summons the spirit of iconic iconoclast Joan of Arc. Janie Gibson unravels the tangled threads of misogyny and Catholicism in an irreverent and moving solo performance which pokes fun at patriarchy and invites the audience to participate in a new performance ritual.

Cast & creatives

Performer and Creator: Janie Gibson

Director and Creator: Anu Almagro

About the artists

Janie Gibson is a theatre artist; actor, writer, director and teaching artist, based in Newcastle, Australia. She uses the ritual of theatre as a forum for human connection; a site to hold radical ideas, witness multivalent perspectives and offer counter-narratives to the confinements of the dominant culture. The stories we tell and are told forge our sense of self. They influence how we act and are acted upon. The narratives we live in can limit us, or expand our sense of possibility. Stories are road maps. Stories can be medicine. Her theatre practice is born out of research and training in leading European ensemble theatre, contemporary performance and an ongoing exploration into the human voice. This search has taken her taken her work around the globe in collaborations with Anu Almagro, Odra Ensemble (Song of the Goat, Poland), Ultimavez (BE), Shakespeare & Company (USA), Kristin Linklater (Orkney) and nationally with New Annual, Curious Legends, NEXT WAVE, Tantrum Youth Arts, PACT Theatre, Roslyn Oades, BYDS and UTP. She has recently returned to her home city of Newcaslte to start a new theatre company, Whale Chorus, and give back to her community.

Anu Almagro (Salonen) is a Finnish actress and director working internationally. Her interest in performance work, deeply rooted in cultural traditions and born out of authentic and energetic connection between people, drove her to Poland for the first time in 2004. In 2007 she became a member of Teatr Piesn Kozla/ Song of the Goat Theatre, an international award winning theatre company based in Wroclaw, Poland and a teacher of the company's unique Coordination technique. The company tours throughout the world and performs in venues such as The BAM, New York and The Globe, London. She created her own theatre company, Odra Ensemble, which trained and performed in Wroclaw, Poland between 2011 and 2013. Finland based company Anu Almagro Actor Training Tmi follows invitations to share profound and holistic acting technique workshops with professional theatre makers as well with students throughout the world. www.anualmagro.com

Image: Voices Of Joan. Photograph by Gabriel Almagro.