About the Play:

The Execution (English-language version of L'exécution) is a full-length drama by Marie-Claire Blais, translated by David Lobdell. Set in the repressed confines of a boarding school, it tells the story of two schoolboys who systematically plot the murder a randomly selected classmate and enact the crime.

The Execution impressed critics as a study of innocence, evil and complicity, themes well-known to readers of the author's fiction. Two boys in a private boarding school plot the murder of another student. Lots are drawn and the unfortunate victim chosen. Goaded on by Kent, Stephane commits the murder. Kent then tries to convince the student body and the school administration that the murder was really committed by two other students, Lancelot and D'Argenteuil. Finally, Stephane confesses to the crime and is sent to jail along with the falsely accused students while parents and school authorities try to get at the truth.

L'exécution premiered in 1968 by The Théâtre du Rideau Vert in Montréal. The Execution had its English in 1990 at Harbourfront's Studio Theatre in Toronto.

Cast: 3 female, 17 male

What people say:

"A brilliant play about the maturation of evil." — CHQM (Vancouver)

About the Playwright:

Marie-Claire Blais is a Québécois writer who has been an important figure of the French literary scene for more than thirty-five years. Having published her first novel at the age of twenty, the iconic literary figure has gone on to publish more than 20 novels in France and Québec – all of which have have met with international acclaim – as well as one play, six radio dramas, and several collections of poetry. In addition to the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction, which she has won four times, she has won several prestigious awards, including the Gilles-Corbeil Prize, the Médicis Prize, the Molson Prize, and Guggenheim Fellowships. The Execution is her only play for the stage.