“Built on the Money”: The Financialization of Capitalism and the Sense of History in Josie Rourke’s Stage Production of Shaw’s Saint Joan

In a bold move, Josie Rourke reimagined Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan for the 2016 audience at the Donmar Warehouse, setting it against the backdrop of today’s financial world. She transported Joan from the medieval battlefield to a modern corporate boardroom, turning historical drama into a commentary on financialization. Through this lens, Rourke’s production responds with Shaw’s paradoxical sense of history, characterized by a skepticism toward short-term trends, yet with an underlying optimism for long-term human progress driven by imagination. By examining egg futures and stock markets, this article adopts an interdisciplinary approach to position theatrical work within the realm of economics, an endeavor that may offer a literary framework of humanity when contemplating our current economic landscape.