Cast announced for Raw Material's Saint Joan play world premiere

Lisa in the theatre
Jan 22
3 min read

Updated: 16 minutes ago

The full cast has been announced for the world premiere of Saint Joan, the reimagining of George Bernard Shaw's classic play from producer Raw Material Arts, which is touring Scotland this spring. Find out more below.

Saint Joan play. Photo credit: Mihaela Bodlovic — Saint Joan promo image. Photo credit: Mihaela Bodlovic

Full cast announced for the intimate, modern re-imagining of the classic play about the teenage girl who led an army and became a patron saint of France

Saint Joan by George Bernard Shaw | Re-imagined and directed by Stewart Laing (Tony Award winner) | Film sequence writer and director Adura Onashile (Fringe First winner)

Performed by Mandipa Kabana as Joan, Lewis MacDougall, Manasa Tagica, Martin O’Connor, Ross Mann and Thierry Mabonga

Touring from Saturday 14 February - Saturday 21 March 2026, 12+

Saint Joan play | Raw Material Arts

Reimagining  George Bernard Shaw’s classic play for the 2020s, this stripped-back, close-up staging is based on the extraordinary true story of a sixteen-year-old girl who led France to victory in the Hundred Years' War. Saint Joan explores power, gender and youth-led change, taking us on the journey of someone from a marginalised background impacting international politics.

As today’s world faces political unrest and war, Saint Joan speaks powerfully to a new generation, challenging authority, reminding us of history’s unlikely revolutionaries.

Directed by  award-winner Stewart Laing (formerly of Untitled Projects), with a film sequence written and directed by award-winning actor, playwright and director  Adura Onashile (Girl, Expensive Shit, Mayflies) and co-produced by award-winning super producers Raw Material (Windblown, Death of a Salesman, Lear, What Girls are Made of), Perth Theatre and Aberdeen Performing Arts.

Director Stewart Laing, who has also re-imagined Shaw’s play, said:

“Doing this huge historical pageant of a play in small spaces with limited resources is really exciting in terms of looking at Saint Joan with fresh eyes. In the 2020s we find our news feeds increasingly dominated by a world at war: what can we learn from this teenager’s battles with the powerful establishments of the military, the church, and the government?”

Director of the short film, Adura Onashile said:

“Working with Stewart and the team, I’ve made a short film that acts as a contemporary response to Shaw’s epilogue. Using found footage, narrative filmmaking and a strong sense of POV, the film sits inside Joan’s experience rather than observing her from the outside. I hope the film brings Saint Joan into the present, not by updating the story, but by allowing today’s world, its conflicts and its ways of witnessing, to press directly against it. Rather than offering a definitive image of Joan, the film keeps her open, shaped by contemporary conflict, protest, and how we now experience events through our bodies and our phones.”

Margaret-Anne O’Donnell and Gillian Garrity, executive producers Raw Material Arts, said:

“We have been long-term fans of both Stewart Laing and Adura Onashile’s work, so to have the opportunity to bring them together with an incredible cast and creative team to work on this fierce contemporary reimagining of George Bernard Shaw’s classic is very exciting. This production will strip the play back into something unflinchingly modern, daring audiences to confront power, belief and the cost of speaking the truth in a hostile world.”