Working from a series of actual but little-known events from turn-of-the-century Montreal history, Paul Tana has crafted a sensitive and moving tale of the terrible fate that befalls a young Italian couple, recently emigrated from Sicily to Montreal to begin a new life. Giuseppe Moschella's home is warm and inviting, a genial meeting place for expatriate Italians and Montreal French to exchange ideas and cultures. An unfortunate misunderstanding implicates Giuseppe in the murder of a local drunken bully, and only through the tireless efforts of his wife, Ninetta, negotiating a prejudiced and bureaucratic world to which she had never before been exposed, is he saved from the gallows but condemned to life imprisonment. Ninetta is faced with the unbearable choice of continuing on in an unpredictably hostile environment or returning to Sicily, thus leaving the love of her life behind forever. Melancholic and poignant, La Sarrasine is a measured study of intolerance and cultures in conflict.-Toronto Festival