Imagine one woman acting out another woman's life before that woman's eyes. Imagine that the woman improvising is white, and the woman watching is Metis. Imagine that the two women collaborate on a play: fight over the plays, do not speak to each other for years, and finally reconcile, recording their tempestuous journey in a book which ends with the play.
Essentially that is the process that culminated in The Book of Jessica, the work of actress (playwright) Linda Griffiths and Metis activist Maria Campbell, author of Halfbreed. The result is a fascinating study not only of the tortuous birth of a magnificent play but of the relationship of two women driven apart and bound together by a maelstrom of internal and external forces.
Their book changed me for the better. The spirit lives.
Year Printed: 1997
First Produced: 1986 by Theatre Passe Muraille, Toronto.
Written With: Maria Campbell.
Acts: 2