Leslie Arden - playwright Leslie Arden

The House of Martin Guerre by Canadian Leslie Arden is a "must see" musical

Leslie Arden's performing parents discouraged her from getting into theatre. Arden's stepfather, Don Parrish, was president of A.C.T.R.A. for years and he advised her to avoid the theatre if she wanted to live above the poverty line. Arden responded to this parental guidance by studying sciences at the University of Guelph, but the theatre beckoned, and Arden felt compelled to return to it.

Now 39, Arden has found work over the years as performer, director, teacher, pianist, writer, composer and lyricist. She wrote the score for Harvest Moon Rising, co-wrote The Prince and the Pauper with Joey Miller and premiered The Greatest Girl at the Lighthouse Theatre. She spent six months at Oxford, one of 13 professional writers chosen to participate in a master class developed by acclaimed director Cameron MacIntosh. Stephen Sondheim was an instructor.

Upon her return to Canada, Arden looked for an inspiring subject and in 1991, she began working on the Martin Guerre story, creating music and lyrics at the same time.

The story is famous, a 16th-century tale of a young French peasant farm boy who was forced into an arranged marriage. The unhappy Martin Guerre deserted his wife Bertrande and baby son, returning eight years later to assume his position as head of the family and heir to the Guerre land. According to legend, Bertrande readily accepted her husband, who had apparently been transformed into a loving and caring partner. Four years later, however, she suddenly denounced him as an impostor, and he was jailed and sent to trial.

The House of Martin Guerre (not to be confused with the troubled Boubil-Schonberg version which has been running on-and-off in London) premiered in 1993 at Toronto's Theatre Plus and won a Dora Award for Best New Musical. (Arden was also nominated for a Chalmer's Award.) Live Entertainment workshopped the play, producing it in the summer of 1996 at Chicago's Goodman Theatre.

Anna Theresa Cascio was brought in to polish the book while Arden worked with the musical director. It was a positive collaboration and the final product won rave reviews and a Jefferson Award for Best Musical. Arden hopes to work with Cascio again.

Back in Toronto, Canadian Stage produced the play in October of 1997, retaining director David Petrarca and several actors from the Chicago show. This particular production was quite handsome, employing Brueghel-like costumes and an evocatively cloistered set by Robert Brill.

As a play Martin Guerre succeeds on several levels - it is a compelling love story filled with yearning and romantic ideals; it is historical piece, replete with exotic medieval detail; it is also a simple allegory for the difficulty of finding one's way in a swiftly changing world. Arden's version speculates on the obvious question: did Bertrande live with her returning spouse for four years without ever realizing that he was an impostor, or did she go along with his deceit because he was now an ideal husband? And why did she change her mind four years later?

There is a depth to Arden's construction of the story which is the real strength of The House of Martin Guerre. "I think that the director thinks it's about change," Arden says, "and I think it's about one individual against society and others will think it's a love story and others think it's about the birth of the Reformation - and that's fine," she laughs.

But the main reason to see a musical is for the songs, and it is here that continued from page 14 ~

Martin Guerre is particularly successful and appealing, proving that the Arden-Cascio musical team is a strong one, perhaps a match for any in the business today.

"I'm just chompin' at the bit to get onto another project," Arden says. "There are about four things I have in mind, but it takes about five years from the moment that you decide what you're going to write to the moment that it hits a large stage in all its glory, so I have to be sure I choose something that I want to live with for five years."

In the meantime, she is working with Danny Grossman on a new music/dance idea and continues to write and perform for the Childrens Trio, a touring company she co-founded about 15 years ago.

The 40-year-old Arden now lives on ten acres just outside of Alliston, Ontario with her life partner and, in her words, "...a cat, a dog and a piano. Life is so complete."

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