Gracie

(Paperback)

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As the play opens, Gracie is eight years old and moving with her mother, brother, and sisters from her community in the southwest United States to a community in south eastern British Columbia, Canada. Her mother has been assigned to a new husband; she becomes his eighteenth wife. Gracie may be eight when the play begins but she is fifteen when the play ends again with a journey as Gracie leaves the community. In five acts, Gracie plays herself at five ages and also gives voice to thirteen other characters including her brother Billy who is forced out of the community a couple of years after the family arrives in Canada. The play is a work of fiction but it is inspired by the history of polygamist communities in both Canada and the United States. When the play opened in January 2017, two days later three persons from Canada's largest polygamist community went to trial for transporting child brides. Gracie loves her family and her faith is strong and a source of comfort to her. Although the play examines practices that are abhorrent critics have noted that a strength of the play is that it does so without judgment. Gracie provides a lens to a complex and secret world. And although it takes place in a community shut off from the outside world it also has a particular resonance for issues at the fore right now fundamentalism and basic human and religious rights. It is also a terrific vehicle for a young actor.

Reviews

"Joan MacLeods excellently researched and compelling written 2017 play, Gracie ."
theatretimes.com

"The remarkable thing about MacLeods play is the restraint she uses to tell five years of Gracies life ... Gracie is an adolescent on the verge of womanhood and that means shes ready to become someones wife, and whats compelling both in MacLeods script and Beaudoins performance is how Gracie deals with the impending inevitable."
Louis B. Hobson, Calgary Herald

Author Bio

Joan MacLeods plays include Jewel, Toronto, Mississippi, Amigos Blue Guitar, The Hope Slide, Little Sister, 2000, The Shape of a Girl, Homechild, Another Home Invasion, and The Valley. She also wrote a libretto for a chamber opera an adaptation of the classic childrens novel The Secret Garden. Her work has been translated into eight languages. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including two Chalmers Canadian Play Awards, the Governor Generals Award, and in 2011 she received the Siminovitch Prize for Theatre. For seven years she was a playwright-in-residence at Torontos Tarragon Theatre. MacLeod also writes poetry, prose, and for television. Since 2004 she has worked at the University of Victoria as a professor in the Department of Writing. In 2016, she became a member of the Royal Society of Canada. Gracie was commissioned by the Belfry and premiered in Victoria in Winter 2017 a co-production with Alberta Theatre Projects in Calgary.