Gracie

by Joan Macleod, Marita Dachsel (Contributor)

Gracie is a dramatic monologue telling the story of child brides in polygamist communities in Canada and the United States. The play is a work of fiction but is inspired by the history of polygamist groups, and its timeliness is uncanny – two days after Gracie premiered, three members of Canada’s largest polygamist community went to trial for transporting child brides.

As the play opens, Gracie is eight years old and moving with her mother, brother, and sisters from the southwestern United States to a community in southeastern British Columbia, Canada. In five acts, Gracie plays herself at five ages and also gives voice to thirteen other characters, including her older sister Celeste – who becomes a wife at sixteen, a mother at seventeen – and her brother Billy, who is forced out of the community just a few years after the family arrives in Canada. And yet Gracie’s faith is a source of comfort to her.

Gracie is a window into a complex and secretive world. While the play takes place in a sheltered community, it also resonates with issues at the fore right now: fundamentalism, religious freedoms, and basic human rights.

Cast of 1 virtuosic actor.

Genres: Plays

80 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1997

Reviews

[Liralen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another one-woman play (dramatic monologues seem to be more of a thing than I'd thought!), this one about polygamy and the FLDS. Gracie is a child when the play opens, a child being moved from the US to Canada so that her mother can become one of a man's many wives. As the play continues, Gracie ages and grows savvier: the girls around her are married off at young ages to men not of their choosing; boys her own age are pushed out of the community so that the older men can marry more girls; Gracie starts to see her own grim future stretching out before her.

I am curious about the choice to keep this to one character, as it works well this way but could also conceivably be done with a larger cast. The ending is perhaps a little abrupt, but this is one of the better plays I've read recently.

[Miriam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Keeps you on your feet the whole time. I love how it followed Gracie growing up slowly and showing us how she adapted to her new lifestyle. You can tell the author put a lot of research into it.