The House of Martin Guerre is a musical written by Leslie Arden

Leslie Arden

Leslie Arden is a Canadian musical theatre composer, lyricist and librettist. She has been described as "arguably Canada's most talented Musical Theatre writer". She is best known for her work The House of Martin Guerre produced by Theatre Plus , the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and the Canadian...

 (music, lyrics & co-book) and Anna Theresa Cascio (co-book). It is inspired by the 16th century French peasant Martin Guerre

Martin Guerre

Martin Guerre, a French peasant of the 16th century, was at the center of a famous case of imposture. Several years after the man had left his wife, child, and village, a man claiming to be Guerre arrived. He lived with Guerre's wife and son for three years. The false Martin Guerre was tried,...

. It was first produced by Theatre Plus under the direction of Duncan McIntosh in Toronto (1993) at the Jane Mallett Theatre. It won the 1994 Dora Mavor Moore Award

Dora Mavor Moore Award

The Dora Mavor Moore Award is an award presented annually by the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts which honours theatre, dance, and opera productions in Toronto. Named after Dora Mavor Moore, who helped establish Canadian professional theatre, the award was established on December 13, 1978...

. It was then developed further by the Canadian theatrical producer Livent

Livent

The Live Entertainment Corporation of Canada, Inc., also known as Livent, was a theatre production company in Toronto, Ontario, begun as a division of the motion picture exhibitor Cineplex Odeon...

 and went on to be produced by Chicago’s Goodman Theatre

Goodman Theatre

The Goodman Theatre is a professional theater company located in Chicago's Loop. A major part of Chicago theatre, it is the city's oldest currently active nonprofit theater organization...

 in 1996. It was directed by David Petrarca and received rave reviews and the Best Musical 1996 Jefferson Award. Variety

Variety (magazine)

Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...

 raved the show was “so fresh, so resoundingly complete and rewarding, that there is talk her first major show may yet land on Broadway”. In 1997, it was once again produced in Toronto by the Canadian Stage Company. Arden was nominated with a Chalmers Award

Chalmers Award

Chalmers Award may refer to:* An early version of the Major League Baseball Most Valuable Player Award, presented from 1911 to 1914,* a Canadian series of arts awards funded by the Chalmers family of arts patrons, including the Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Awards, the Jean A. Chalmers National...

for her work.

...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.