Pope Joan, National Youth Theatre at St James’s Church - theatre review

It would be hard to think of a better setting for this play about the apocryphal medieval female pontiff than Sir Christopher Wren's Piccadilly Church, elegant and capacious enough to suggest a Rome of whispering power corridors. It's an admirably confident start to the National Youth Theatre's autumn season, performed by a large and energetic young company.

First-time writer Louise Brealey has done a spritely job of surrounding John/Joan with a shimmering nexus of scheming men, Elizabeth I-style, but what we really hanker for is simple: more (invented) details. How did this educated young woman, who betakes herself to a monastery in order to read the monks’ books, make it all the way to the top at the Vatican? Paul Hart’s production is better at atmospherics - moody music, sepulchral lighting and an ecclesiastical year’s worth of incense - than specifics, although the details of Joan’s disastrous pregnancy are real enough.

It’s a vehement, occasionally petulant performance from Sophie Crawford as Joan, increasingly given to expounding on her admiration for Mary Magdalene, to the disquiet of her fellows. Sarah Miele shadows her as her younger self, enrapt by Homer, while around them the patriarchy roils and snares.

Until Sept 15 (020 7452 3000, nationaltheatre.org.uk)