La Sagouine is simply essential viewing. Antonine Maillet’s 1971 play is a true classic of Canadian literature. Viola Léger was 41 when she originated the title role of the 72-year-old scrub-woman and has played it ever since. Léger last played the part in Toronto in 1979. Now that she is about a month short of 80, her performance is even more poignant.      

Maillet’s La Sagouine, originally written in the French Acadian dialect, is a collection of 16 monologues spoken by dirt-poor, uneducated Acadian woman who has never left her village of Bouctouche, New Brunswick. La Sagouine (a derogatory term meaning “the filthy woman” because of her job) and her husband Gapi, a oyster fisherman, eke out a living at the very bottom of the social hierarchy. Though part of the community of Acadians, they are still viewed as outsiders in very land where they were born and thus can view the world with the detachment and humour that are perhaps the only solace an outsider has. 

As we learn from La Sagouine, Gapi’s world view is cynical, irreligious and iconoclastic. She refuses to listen to his tirades because her natural inclination is to see what little good there is in things no matter how bad they seem. Of the 12 children she bore, nine died in infancy, but three did survive. Always, she tries to figure out why God would have willed such a thing even when there seems to be no answer. It is not death she fears, but what might come after. If it is hell, she need not worry because she is already familiar enough with it on Earth.  

Of the 16 monologues, Léger performs five — “Death,” “The Pews,” “The Census,” “The War” and “The Spring.” These are well-chosen because, though the object of satire may change, they each carry on the themes of death and religion and conclude with the hope for renewal in nature,  in life and, symbolically, of the Acadian people.

There really are no words to describe the quiet brilliance of Léger’s performance. You simply cannot imagine anyone else so fully and so compassionately embodying such an immensely rich character. At Léger’s present age, there is an outward frailty vying with an inward indomitable resilience that is ideal for the character and gives the play a powerfully emotional resonance. In Japan, an actor of Léger’s importance would be declared a living national treasure. To see her in her signature role is an unmissable experience.