To hear someone in a position of authority speak about you with a ferocity that mirrors the words “Stick her on an island lest she spread the contagion of discontent” would be, at the very least, upsetting. If you were to find yourself at sea with those words aimed at you, it would most certainly ruin your day. But to experience that unrepentant sentiment at the hands of your uncle – who also happens to be the First Lieutenant General of the very seafaring vessel on which you travelled – well, there goes your entire week.
This is exactly the level of overreaction experienced by Marguerite de Roberval, a French noblewoman marooned on the Isle of Demons in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence (amidst France’s ill-fated third attempt to colonize Canada) for the moral crime of coitus with a lover. It’s a largely untold story – one which served as inspiration for Theatre Passe Muraille’s production of Elle. Based on Canadian author Douglas Glover’s Governor General’s Award-winning novel of the same name, Elle is an extraordinary one-woman production that follows de Roberval’s survivalist exploits, arranged by and starring the gregarious Severn Thompson.
In speaking with the Toronto-based playwright, it’s clear that after five years of developing the play, her passion for telling the story remains.
“It’s a great story of survival with tons of surprises. [De Roberval] was left there, but I am glad that the story is finally out there about her. It’s very satisfying to me, so I love sharing it, I’m really happy to be taking it to other places.”
Set in 1542, Elle boldly begins with that fateful, sea-tossed tryst, and our main character fornicating in flagrante delicto in the hold of the ship. Evoking modern-day comparisons to Leonardo DiCaprio’s The Revenant, de Roberval is then abandoned with her lover and her nurse, and left to confront “real bears, spirit bears, and perhaps hallucinated bears” while deftly navigating Canada’s colonial nascence.
“It’s definitely (told) from this European woman’s point of view,” says Thompson, “but it does have elements where it shares the perspective of the indigenous people. And even with the character Bastiene, my character’s servant, she didn’t do anything wrong and yet she is thrown off the boat, as well. Bastiene is hardly even seen as a person but seen more like property; so, hopefully, people see our addressing that.”
In addition to feminist overtones, Thompson also takes pride in having maintained the central themes of the original source material.
“The unique relationship shared between the spirit bear and humanity as a whole, as well as the interconnection of the bear and Elle were both integral touch-points to the story,” Thompson says. “The humour was in the book already,” she continues, “and I feel that it is something that feeds the audience, keeps them on board – everybody on board – of this gruelling journey that she is on. I think you can feel the pain more; I don’t think that it takes away from painful moments if you are able to laugh.”
• Elle is on now until Feb. 18 at the Firehall Arts Centre (280 E. Cordova). Tickets from $23 at FirehallArtsCentre.ca
