I Am Marguerite
(Cast: 3f, 2m Doubling possible)
In 1542, 19 year old Marguerite de Roberval contrived to join her brother, Jean Francois “Sieur” de Roberval, on the great expedition to establish the first French colony in the new world. But when Jean Francois discovered that she had fallen in love with an unsuitable young nobleman on board ship, he abandoned Marguerite on a deserted island in the Strait of Belle Isle for daring to choose love over duty. Inspired by this real but little known event, the play takes place 2 1/2 years later. Marguerite has lost her lover, nurse and infant son and is on the verge of madness when she sees a fishing boat weighing anchor. Her confused mind finds the prospect of returning to France more terrifying than another cold winter alone in the New World. She conjures up remembered, imagined and possible future encounters with her poetic and doomed lover, Eugene, her practical and devoted nurse, Damienne, her arrogant brother, Jean-Francois, and her mentor, the intelligent yet conformist Queen of Navarre. Torn between love, despair, remorse and the desire for revenge, she struggles to decide whether to live or die.
Reading at Art Word Theatre, Toronto, June 30, 2004. Director: Molly Thom
Reading at Manhattan Theatre Source, New York, Feb 2, 2002. Director: Eva Van Dok
Produced: Theatre By the Bay, Cornerbrook, Newfoundland. July/August 1997. Director: Roy Robitschek. Further information about the production.
An earlier draft of the play was produced by Black Box Theatre in Prague, Czech Republic in December 1994. Director: Alan Kinnaird.
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