A Protest Musical for the Trump Era

Five actors gathered in a room on Lafayette Street, in downtown Manhattan, to start rehearsing a new work for the Public Theatre, "Joan of Arc: Into the Fire." Written by David Byrne, formerly of the Talking Heads, the show recast the enduring, improbable story of Joan--a teen-age girl in medieval France who experienced divine visions, led an army to defeat an occupying power, and was burned at the stake for heresy--as a rock musical that spoke to the current political moment. It was early January, and, that morning, U.S. intelligence officials had arrived at Trump Tower to brief the President-elect, Donald Trump, on the findings of an investigation into the recent election, in which they had concluded that President Vladimir Putin, of Russia, had acted to insure the defeat of Hillary Clinton. Inauguration Day was looming, and the rehearsal room had a troubled mood that reflected more than the ordinary anxieties of creating a show. The actors arranged four tables into a rectangle and sat down with Alex Timbers, the director of "Joan of Arc." Timbers, who is thirty-eight, is tall and fine-featured. He wore a denim shirt and black jeans that hung off his lanky, slightly hunched frame. His hair is dark and thick, and he frequently runs a hand through it, like a Romantic poet on deadline. Despite the air of disquiet, Timbers, who talks like a cool high-school teacher--lots of vocal fry, the repeated use of "awesome"--addressed the cast with rousing enthusiasm. He explained that, though the show had been in development for two years, it remained a work in progress. "I don't think anything is sacred--we are going to be building this together," Timbers said to the actors, all of whom were men except for Jo Lampert, a thirty-one-year-old newcomer, who was to play Joan. Timbers presented a scale model of the stage design, which had been conceived by Chris Barreca. When built, the set would be black and austere, and filled with enormous L.E.D. screens. A staircase extended from wing to wing, and at center stage there was a vertiginous platform. The set was on a turntable, and as it revolved it represented everything from a cathedral to a prison tower.