Description
The (Post) Mistress is a new one-woman musical theatre work written and composed by Cree playwright, composer and classical pianist, Tomson Highway. The (Post) Mistress recounts the adventures of a small-town postmistress, Marie-Louise Faucon, who divines the contents of sealed letters that pass through her hands. Having worked at the same rural post office for many years (in the fictional northern Ontario town of Lovely, just west of copper mining town Complexity), the postmistress becomes deeply involved in the emotional lives of her clients. Through 12 letters, expressed through song, she shares details and episodes of their lives. Gradually, the shape of her own life emerges. There is more to Marie-Louise Faucon than first meets the eye. In this one-woman musical tour de force, Marie-Louise confides in us the interwoven stories sealed in the envelopes she handles every day. A samba beat offers the soundtrack for the tale of a local woman’s passionate but doomed affair with a man from Rio de Janeiro; a rhythmic tango plays as Marie-Louise divulges a friend’s steamy tryst in Argentina. All together, twelve unique musical pieces, ranging from Berlin cabaret to French café chanson to smooth bossa nova, accompany a multilingual French, Cree, and English libretto.