Marie Laveaux
The Voodoo Queen of New Orleans

ACT I.

Scene 1. In her St. Ann St. salon sanctuary in the French Quarter, early December 1814, Marie Laveaux invokes Voodoo Loa and Catholic Saints to divine the whereabouts of her enslaved lover Kwamena, but her prayers are interrupted with a knock at the door: A haggard and wounded soldier is in need of a healer, and Marie – recognizing General Jackson - invites him in. As she attends to his wounds, she discreetly sets aside his blood-stained dressing. A sip of medicinal spirits loosens his tongue, and Marie listens intently as Jackson discloses the formidable challenges of the coming battle against the invading British. She leaves Jackson to rest and begins to greet her customers - a cross-section of the whole demographic gumbo of New Orleans. The General observes the Voodoo Queen as she bestows her legal and medical advice and magical ministrations. A trio of Jean Lafitte’s men enters laden with a sack of booty, but Marie is not pleased that her voodoo gris-gris is missing. As she offers the pirated goods to her appreciative customers, a passerby on St. Ann St. exclaims that the German Coast rebels have been captured! Marie fears that Kwamena – himself a slave on one of the German Coast Plantations - is in grave danger. It is now imperative that she journey to Barataria Bay to retrieve the gris-gris from Lafitte. She shoos her customers out then quickly completes her care of the General. Having observed Marie’s immense influence over the eccentric populace of New Orleans, Jackson asks for her assistance in the coming fight for freedom. Marie consents and offers to help him enlist free gens de couleur, errant slaves, and even Jean Lafitte’s well-armed privateers. Jackson eyes the “Lafitte Wanted” poster nailed to the Salon door and dismisses the latter idea, but, as he departs, he muses that in Marie Laveaux he has found at least one thing in New Orleans worth saving. 

 

Scene 2. At Privateer Jean Lafitte’s Barataria Bay hideout, the off-loading of black gold (pirated slaves) from the captain’s prize schooner Dorado is interrupted by the arrival of Admiral Cochrane’s landing party. Offered gold and more if he helps Britain seize New Orleans, Lafitte accepts. Marie arrives and evades his embrace by presenting the “Lafitte Wanted” poster, which Lafitte mocks to his crew as Cochrane departs. He pitches the gold to his men then escorts Marie to his quarters where he attempts to woo her, presenting her with the precious gris-gris. When she inquires as to the myriad fleur-de-lys-themed objects decorating his quarters, Jean ruefully recounts losing his wife and baby daughter escaping the Saint-Dominique Revolution. The baby was born with a fleur-de-lys birthmark on her shoulder, which the captain had replicated on himself in Fleur’s memory. He turns to reveal the tattoo, but Marie has just slipped away with the gris-gris. American ships arrive and open fire. Amidst the confusion, the Voodoo Queen escapes in a nearby launch. A cannonball strikes the Dorado’s mast and it crashes down on Lafitte. The fleur-de-lys flag floats down, covering the stricken captain like a funeral shroud.

 

Scene 3. Marie disembarks her skiff and clambers up the banks of the Mississippi, disappearing into the darkness. As she feels her way to the adjacent Place d’Armes she prays that the reports of yesterday’s massacre of the German Coast rebels are only rumors. Then she feels a fence pike: It is sticky and fetid. She lights her lamp which illuminates a gruesome gallery of rebel heads impaled on the fence pikes enclosing the Place. She screams, but Kwamena has emerged from the shadows and quickly stifles her outburst. They embrace in passionate reunion, then he continues taking down his friends’ heads while recounting the harrowing tale of the revolt and their savage executions. He breaks down, but as Marie comforts him, a vigilante enters the Place and shoots Kwamena, who kills him. As Kwamena bleeds out, Marie performs a Voodoo rite with her precious gris-gris. The Rebel leader passes and Marie removes Kwamena’s bloodied scarf and wraps it around her head: She is the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans and will use her power to avenge Kwamena’s death and help free her people. 

 

ACT II.

Scene 1. It is Twelve Night January 6th and the Old St. Louis Hotel Rotunda’s slave block is decorated for the Mardi Gras Ball de Plaçage auction. Marie styles the quadroon debutante’s hair but turns away in disgust when they are paraded across the block’s proscenium like livestock and bid on by affluent plantation owners. The gentlemen then dance with their elegant acquisitions and Marie prepares a late arrival named Amalie. Beautiful despite her striking fleur-de-lys birthmark, Marie realizes she is Fleur - Lafitte’s long-lost daughter. But before she can say anything, Madame LaLurie places the winning bid and Dr. LaLurie takes to the floor with Amalie né Fleur. A masked gentleman in a fleur-de-lys cape enters and dazzles the crowd with fancy footwork, even as he flagrantly gropes his dance partners. Marie recognizes the decidedly-alive privateer Jean Lafitte and takes to the dance floor with him. Jean paints a seductive scenario of the adventure and romance awaiting her as his paramour. She offers to be his if he will side with the Americans in the fight for freedom, but he declines. When he is distracted by a beautiful young chatelaine nearby, Marie furtively clips a lock of his hair and pockets it. She sees an opening and introduces Jean to Amalie, but Dr. LaLurie firmly rejects the masked stranger’s cut-in request. Then the privateer eyes the young beauty’s birthmark and cries out “Oh mon Dieu, tu es Fleur, ma fille Fleur!” The elated privateer unmasks and removes his cape revealing his fleur-de-lys tattoo and boldly declares himself to be her father. Madame LaLaurie emerges from the stunned crowd in a rage and attempts to secure her property, but Marie runs some gris-gris interference and Jean absconds with Fleur. 

 

Scene 2. On battle’s eve January 7th, General Jackson examines the newly erected muddy rampart along the Rodriguez canal in Chalmette. The freshly enlisted Battalion of Free Men of Color falls in, and Jackson completes the inspection of his ragtag army. He then delivers a rousing patriotic speech, and some musicians from the new Battalion join in for the rousing close. Night falls, and Jackson retires to his tent. Revisiting ancient grudges, the General rails against the British as he fall asleep. In the distant Convent, Ursuline nuns pray to Our Lady of Prompt Succor for success. Her image materializes out of the fog as their ethereal voices envelop the pitch-black battlefield. 

 

Scene 3. In Congo Square, Marie finishes sewing the purloined lock of hair to Lafitte’s Voodoo doll. The ghosts of the decapitated German Coast rebels urge her on in rhythmic counterpoint to her Voodoo chants. Dawn breaks on the battlefield, and a group of British soldiers concealed in the mist is exposed by a sudden gust of wind. Jackson opens fire and an entire column of Redcoats falls, but General Pakenham seems to have infinite reinforcements. Lafitte and his Baratarians burst out of the woods flanking the American forces, and Lafitte is about to fire on them. The severed-head voices climax in violent cacophony as Marie whispers into the voodoo doll’s ear. The real Lafitte scratches his head in confusion. She perambulates the doll, and the real Lafitte does an about-face then orders his Baratarians to turn and attack the British! Now trapped between Jackson’s wall, the Baratarians and the Rodriguez Canal, the Redcoats are slaughtered and General Pakenham is shot in the derriere and dies (with the antithesis of dignity). The battle is won and the Americans applaud the British for their valor as they exit the battlefield. But then a wounded Redcoat rises and shoots Lafitte. Fleur rushes to his side, and in her honor the privateer Jean Lafitte frees his captives with his dying breath.

 

ACT III. 

Scene 1. Gathered in the Place d’Armes, the jubilant and mostly tipsy people of New Orleans pause to pay respects to Jean Lafitte’s funeral procession and his grieving daughter Fleur. A choir and organ anthem swells as General Jackson exits the adjoining Saint Louis Cathedral and enters the Place d’Armes. He commends his motley army and the people of New Orleans, then bows to Marie, eliciting cheers. His patriotic speech extolls freedom - including “...the freedom to own slaves that will never be impinged upon.” Enraged by his betrayal, Marie thrusts her hairpin into a voodoo doll made from General Jackson’s bloody bandage, who grabs his chest and falls off his horse. Madame LaLaurie has been stalking Marie and grabs the doll and hoists it aloft, denouncing Marie as a sorceress. Amidst the confusion, the LaLauries drag Marie away.

 

Scene 2. That night Madame LaLaurie tortures Marie in her mansion attic, but she has ingested a vial of potion and feels nothing, so the Madame strangles her with Kwamena’s blood-stained scarf. Sensing this, Kwamena stirs in his crypt and smashes it open. As he regains consciousness from his zombie-like state, he homes in on his lover. Outraged by attic window-glimpses of their Voodoo Queen’s torture, a crowd begins to gather outside the LaLaurie mansion. Kwamena smashes down the mansion door and ascends to the attic, freeing his beloved. He carries Marie to safety and stanches her wounds with the scarf. The women of New Orleans find whatever cloth they can and wrap their hair up like Marie, as the men set fire to the mansion. The LaLauries die in agony. While freedom for their people has been deferred, Kwamena and Marie’s love has survived. The struggle for freedom will continue.

 

CURTAIN