The Divine: A Play for Sarah Bernhardt
The woman who dares to say everything that should be left unsaid.
Written by Michel Marc Bouchard
Translated by Linda Gaboriau
Quebec City, 1908. Two priests-to-be are ordered to deliver a letter to a controversial visitor to their city: the legendary French actress, Sarah Bernhardt. Michaud, the son of the province’s minister of finance, is a theatre lover. Talbot, on the other hand comes from a family struggling with poverty. The two are ordered to deliver a letter from the Archbishop forbidding Bernhardt to appear on stage at any point during her one and only visit to Quebec City, on the grounds that she has decided to perform a play in which Adrienne Lecouvreur “sings the praises of adulterous love” and “ridicules a man of the cloth portrayed as a plotting habitué of Parisian salons.” A battle for the hearts and minds of Quebeckers ensues through these two seminarians: the powerful Catholic Church on one side, and the power of the divine Sarah Bernhardt – and the world of the theatre – on the other. Based on a true story.
“Life begets life. Energy creates energy. It is by spending oneself that one becomes rich.” —Sarah Bernhardt
2016 production
November 7, 2016
American Premiere of Staged Equity Reading
Produced by Myriam Cyr, Patricia P. Jamison, and Catherine Stramer
Directed by Myriam Cyr
Set Design by Catherine Stramer
Light Design by Kevin Dunn
The Black Box Lab at Stage284, Hamilton, MA
Bouchard takes a real event in history and uses it to cast some dazzling new light on the themes that this gifted author has pursued with passion for all of his career: the destruction of innoce, the inequalities in his native province's social and religious systems and the healing capability of theater in the face of these ills.
—Toronto Star
CAST
The Boss: Doug Brendel
Brother Casgrain: Ken Cheeseman*+ (AEA)
Leo Talbot: Jack Cormier
Madeleine: Samantha Flahive
Sarah Bernhardt: Lee Mikeska Gardner*(AEA)
Meyer, Manager: Francis Hauert
Emma Francoeur: Patricia Peterson Jamison
Therese Desnoyers: Kerry Anne Kilkelly
Narrator: Sharon Mason*(AEA)
Michaud: Jake Namaroff
Mrs. Talbot: Eve Passeltiner*+ (AEA)
Talbot: Ryan Winkles *(AEA)
*Member of Actor’s Equity
+Member of SAG-AFTRA
THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS:
The Government of Quebec