Christina, The Girl King

By Michel Marc Bouchard

Michel Marc Bouchard’s latest play tells the story of Queen Christina of Sweden, who wreaked havoc throughout northern Europe in the middle of the seventeenth century. An enigmatic monarch, a flamboyant and unpredictable intellectual, a woman eager for knowledge, and a feminist before her time, Christina reigned over an empire she hoped to make the most sophisticated in all of Europe.

In 1649, Christina summoned René Descartes to her court in Uppsala to share with her the radical new ideas emerging from science and philosophy at the time – ideas that contradicted long-held, faith-based views about the world. Astronomer Johannes Kepler had recently proposed the elliptical trajectory of planets – including Earth – around the sun, and Descartes himself contended, despite condemnation from the Church, that individuals, not God, determined their own destiny.

Descartes’s ideas about free will and reason appealed to Christina, who was struggling to reconcile tensions between her rational, thinking self and emotions she dared not name – including her love for a woman. Rather than bow to pressure to conform to the expectations of a nation that demanded she give it an heir, the twenty-six-year-old queen abdicated her throne to convert to Catholicism – rendering her ineligible to rule, according to Swedish law. Was this an act of madness? Or a bold gesture of autonomy by a modern woman born out of her time – one whom the seventeenth century simply could not contain?

Christina, The Girl King premiered at the 2014 Stratford Festival.

Cast of 4 women and 6 men.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Talonbooks
• Release date: Aug 15, 2014
• ISBN: 9780889228993

Michel Marc Bouchard

Québec playwright Michel Marc Bouchard emerged on the professional theatre scene in 1985. Since then, he has written twenty-five plays and has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the prestigious National Order of Québec for his contribution to Québec culture in 2012, and the Order of Canada in 2005. He has also received le Prix Littéraire du Journal de Montréal, Prix du Cercle des critiques de l’Outaouais, the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award, the Dora Mavor Moore Award, and the Chalmers Award for Outstanding New Play. Talon has published his Christina, the Girl King, The Divine, The Madonna Painter, and Tom at the Farm, all of which have been translated by Linda Gaboriau. Translated into nine languages, Bouchard’s bold, visionary works have represented Canada at major festivals around the world.

Book preview

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Contents

PREFACE

PRODUCTION HISTORY

CHARACTERS

Part One

1. THE TROPHY ROOM

2. THE SAME SETTING

3. THE QUEEN’S BEDROOM

4. THE TROPHY ROOM

Part Two

1. THE TROPHY ROOM

2. THE QUEEN’S BEDROOM

Part Three

1. OUTSIDE UPPSALA CASTLE

2. THE ANATOMICAL THEATRE

3. THE FROZEN LAKE

Epilogue

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To Linda Gaboriau,

my ally in all the battles.

To Anna Stratton,

who introduced me to Christina of Sweden.

We try in vain to appear to be

what we are not.

Christina, Queen of Sweden

PREFACE

Christina of Sweden is fascinating because she is so modern. An enigmatic queen, flamboyant and unpredictable, a woman eager for knowledge, a tomboy, a feminist before her time, she wreaked havoc throughout northern Europe in the mid-seventeenth century.

She is six years old when her father, the great defender of the Lutheran faith, dies, leaving her to reign over an empire she hopes to make the most sophisticated in all of Europe.

She wants to control everything, yet she cannot master her own feelings—the ones she dares not name, the ones that defy reason—including that strange love, the love that, to this very day, her biographers fail to name.

To fulfill her personal aspirations, with extraordinary political shrewdness, she manages to cast off the yoke imposed by her faith and her title.

I have chosen to write a classical play, in the longstanding tradition of theatre written to portray heroes. I have tried to examine the question that Christina of Sweden raises, the question more relevant today than ever: how to choose between the common good and personal aspirations. Between one’s country and oneself.

Was Christina a heroine of the cause for individual freedom or a traitor to her country?

Christina of Sweden renounced the country she loved, renounced her father, her faith, everything she was in order to become what she wanted to be: free to define herself, using her free will, in keeping with the teachings of her friend René Descartes.

Michel Marc Bouchard

AUGUST 31, 2012

PRODUCTION HISTORY

Christine, la reine-garçon premiered on November 15, 2012, at Théâtre du Nouveau Monde in Montreal, Quebec, under the artistic direction of Lorraine Pintal, in a production directed by Serge Denoncourt, assisted by Elaine Normandeau, with the following cast and creative team:

Catherine Bégin: Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg

Céline Bonnier: Christina, Queen of Sweden

David Boutin: Generalissimo Karl Gustav

Éric Bruneau: Count Johan Oxenstierna

Louise Cardinal: Duchess Erika Brähe

Jean-François Casabonne: René Descartes

Mathieu Handfield: the Albino

Robert Lalonde: Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna

Magalie Lépine-Blondeau: Countess Ebba Sparre

Gabriel Sabourin: Chanut

Set designer: Guillaume Lord

Costume designer: François Barbeau

Lighting designer: Martin Labrecque

Makeup artist: Amélie Bruno-Longpré

Music and sound designer: Philip Pinsky

The English-language version of the play, Christina, The Girl King, was originally commissioned by the Stratford Shakespeare Festival of Stratford, Ontario, and premiered there on August 14, 2014, under the artistic direction of Antoni Cimolino and the executive direction of Anita Gaffney, in a production directed by Vanessa Porteous, with the following cast and creative team:

Graham Abbey: Count Johan Oxenstierna

Wayne Best: Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna

Kevin Bundy: Chanut

Patricia Collins: Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg

John Kirkpatrick: René Descartes

Claire Lautier: Countess Ebba Sparre

Elliott Loran: the Albino

Rylan Wilkie: Generalissimo Karl Gustav

Brigit Wilson: Duchess Erika Brähe

Jenny Young: Christina, Queen of Sweden

Designer: Michael Gianfrancesco

Lighting designer: Kimberly Purtell

Music and sound designer: Alexander MacSween

Dramaturge: Bob White

Fight director: John Stead

Assistant director: Jessica Carmichael

Assistant costume designer: Alyssa Westman

Stage manager: Melissa Rood

Assistant stage managers:

Renate Hanson, Christopher Sibbald

Production stage manager: Michael Hart

Technical director: Robbin Cheesman

CHARACTERS

(in order of appearance)

DUCHESS ERIKA BRÄHE

Second lady-in-waiting to the queen

COUNTESS EBBA SPARRE

First lady-in-waiting to the queen

CHRISTINA

Queen of Sweden

GENERALISSIMO KARL GUSTAV

Christina’s cousin

CHANCELLOR AXEL OXENSTIERNA

Chancellor of Sweden

COUNT JOHAN OXENSTIERNA

Axel’s son

CHANUT

France’s ambassador to Sweden

RENÉ DESCARTES

French philosopher

MARIA ELEONORA OF BRANDENBURG

Christina’s mother and widow of King Gustav II

THE ALBINO

THE CADAVER

Part One

Mid-seventeenth century. Sweden. Uppsala Castle. Winter.

Erika and Ebba appear in a spotlight. Ebba is holding two crystal goblets. She listens anxiously as Erika tells her story.

ERIKA. It happened suddenly. The queen was in high spirits, a mood all too rare for her. It was infectious. Even the echo of her cursing spread good humour throughout the court. I remember the moon was full and cast long, generous shadows. It was a misleading moon. We didn’t see the dark wall approaching in the distance. A wall of deep, murky grey. And the queen’s happy cursing masked the silence about to descend on us. The chancellor and his son, and the ambassador of France and his philosopher, they were all there. And the queen’s cousin, Karl Gustav. The sleighs raced over frozen Lake Malar. The reindeer were hard to control. Their instinct must have alerted them to what was about to happen. And the snow, the wind. The sky had released its fury on us.

Ebba disappears.

1. THE TROPHY ROOM

The walls are decorated with hunting trophies displaying an impressive array of antlers.

Christina enters, followed by Karl Gustav, Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna, and