The Savage Season

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Synopsis:

“[A Savage Season] is a good example of the often-bleak subject matter which concerned [playwright, Anne Hébert]: a mother desperately tries to keep her family in an isolated mountainous retreat to protect it from the outside world and to keep the grown children in a childlike state — “savage and pure.” The play was translated into English by Elizabeth Mascall, and performed in Toronto in 1972 at the Firehall Theatre. A new translation by Pamela Grant and Gregory Reid, entitled “The Savage Season,” is included in Anthology of Quebec Women’s Plays in English Translation, Vol I (1966-1986), ed. Louise H. Forsyth (Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press, 2006).” (From the Canadian Theatre Encyclopaedia)

Characters:

AGNÈS JONCAS, 50 years old

FRANÇOIS JONCAS, 60 years old

Their children:

HÉLÈNE, 22 years old

SÉBASTIEN, 20 years old

LUCIE, 17 years old

MARIE, 15 years old

CAPUCINE, 10 years old

ISABELLE (the cousin), 20 years old, from Montreal

THE PRIES, FATHER BEAUMONT,about 35 years old

A CHILD

First Produced:

Théâtre du Nouveau Monde, Quebec City, 196610

Resources:

A Savage Season is available through Playwrights Canada Press in Anthology of Quebec Women’s Plays in English Translation Volume One (1966-1986), edited by Louise H Forsyth.

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