The December Man / L'Homme De Décembre
by Colleen Murphy
by Colleen Murphy
A young survivor of a tragic school shooting grapples with guilt and the impact of violence on his family while the play delves into themes of courage, heroism, and despair.
About The Play
About The Play
Part of ‘Introducing Colleen Murphy’, a mini-season within a season as part of “In Their Place” – a three month season of work by women playwrights
On 6 December 1989, a young man, 25-year-old Marc Lépine entered a college classroom at the The École Polytechnique, Montréal, Canada, carrying a gun. He separated the male and female students and claiming that he was “fighting feminism”, shot all nine women in the room, killing six. He then moved through corridors, the cafeteria, and another classroom, specifically targeting women to shoot. Overall, he killed fourteen women and injured ten other women and four men in just under twenty minutes before turning the gun on himself…
Jean, a promising young student, survives the attack, but is crippled by guilt. Struggling to survive the aftermath, Benoît and Kathleen do everything they can to help their beloved son cope with guilt and rage…but Jean’s young life becomes unglued. Using humour and the humdrum of everyday life, the play intuitively moves backwards in time to the fateful day when Jean, the only ray of hope in this working class family, escaped the massacre…or thought he did. This searing drama on courage, heroism and despair explores the long private shadows that public violence casts.