Heartlines traces the interaction of love, art, and war as it reimagines the lives of French surrealist and avant-garde artists Lucy Schwob (a.k.a. Claude Cahun) and Suzanne Malherbe (a.k.a. Marcel Moore), who were secretly Jewish, lesbian life partners, active in the French Resistance during the Second World War.
Keywords: queer, trans, Jewish, surrealism, artists, French
Produced by Great Canadian Theatre Company, Ottawa ON, 2022
Cover image by Andrew Alexander, featuring performers Scottie Irving, Margo MacDonald, and Maryse Fernandes, directed by Rebecca Benson.
Genre: Comedic Drama, Play with Music, Historical
Acts: 2
Run time: 90 minutes
Suitable for students 16+
Content notes: Contains discussions of the Holocaust and World War Two, Nazi imagery and symbols, sexuality, insinuated violence, discussion of a hate crime that targets LGBTQ+ and Jewish people and discussion of rape and suicide.
Cast size: 3 actors
Male roles: 1
Female roles: 2
Trans/Non-Binary/Gender Non-Conforming Roles: 3
Musician roles: 1
Casting notes: The play can be performed by 2 female-presenting performers and 1 male-presenting performer, but they can be of any gender. The play it about gender and about performing gender. The characters of Claude and Suzanne are read as female by the world they live in. The bandleader can be any gender presentation.
Listen to playwright Sarah Waisvisz's podcast episode by UK's Global Voices Theatre podcast series Global Jewish Voices, season 2 episode 3: globalvoicestheatre.com/podcast/
And the Next Stages podcast interviewed by Lawrence Aronovitch and Janne Cleveland: cod.ckcufm.com/programs/608/58211.html
"...the writing is fast paced, keeping the story flowing as it is told in alternating, varying styles - as a traditional stage play, play-within-the-play and vaudeville type sequences, monologues, and memory."
- Courtney Castellino, Broadway World