Les Filles du Roi (The King’s Daughters), a gorgeous new trilingual musical written in English, French, and Kanien’kéha (Mohawk), is the powerful story of Kateri, a young Kanien’kehá:ka girl, and her brother Jean-Baptiste, whose lives are disrupted upon the arrival of les filles due roi in 1665. They forge an unlikely relationship with young fille Marie-Jeanne Lesperance, whose dreams of a new life are more complicated than she could have imagined. Over the course of a year, Kanien’kehá:ka, French and English journeys collide, setting the stage for the Canada we know today. Payette’s music connects the heartbeat of the drum and the soaring voices of our female ancestors in a thrilling contemporary score, weaving three languages and rivalling the beauty of Canada’s most stunning landscapes.
About the Authors
Corey Payette is proud of his Oji-Cree heritage from Northern Ontario. He has worked across Canada as a playwright, actor, composer, and director, and is the winner of the John Hirsch Prize, two Jessie Awards, and two Ovation Awards. Corey’s work includes the original musical Children of God (book/music/lyrics & direction) which premiered in 2017 and has toured extensively since, Les Filles du Roi (music and direction, with co-book/lyrics with Julie McIsaac), which was written in English, French, and Kanien’kéha (Mohawk), and Sedna (music composition and direction, co-created with Reneltta Arluk and Marshall McMahen). Corey is the Artistic Director of Vancouver’s Urban Ink, past Artist-in-Residence with English Theatre at Canada’s National Arts Centre, and the founding Artistic Director of Raven Theatre. He was the past Grand Chief of the Board of Directors of the Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance. Corey lives on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl’ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples.
Of French, Scots/Irish and Norwegian ancestry, Julie McIsaac grew up on the southern shores of Georgian Bay, on the traditional territories of the Odawa, Ouendat, Anishinabek, and Haudenosaunee Confederacy. A direct, playwright/librettist and multi-instrumentalist, Julie has appeared on stages throughout Western Canada. She is an Associate Artist with Firepot Performance, a founding member of the Honest Fishmongers, and a frequent collaborator with Urban Ink. She is also the playwright, composer-arranger, music director and co-sound designer of The Out Vigil. Julie lives in Vancouver.
