Bringing Tracy Letts’ August: Osage County to Moncton
A Hub City Theatre production opening this week in Moncton has deep ties to Sackville, with current residents, recent graduates, and a future Mount Allison student helping bring August: Osage County to the stage.
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The Pulitzer Prize-winning play opens Thursday at Théâtre l’Escaouette on Botsford Street and runs through Saturday. The 11-member cast includes Rob LeBlanc, Gabrielle Gagnon, Alora Simon, and Emma Chapman, all of whom have connections to Sackville and Mount Allison.
Sackville connections run through the cast
Rob LeBlanc lives in Sackville and has been part of the community since 2008. He says this production marks a new step in his acting work.
“I live in Sackville with my wife . . . and this is my first show in the big city of Moncton with Hub City, and I play a character named Steve Heidelberg.”
Gabrielle Gagnon studied politics, philosophy and economics at Mount Allison, with a minor in drama. She says Sackville played a major role in her growth.
“I joke about it but it is true that I kind of came of age in Sackville. I think I really found myself.”
Emma Chapman is set to begin at Mount Allison this fall. Chapman says theatre first brought her to Sackville.
“Part of how I found myself going to Mount A is because I was invited to do a performance there. That was where I wanted to be.”
Chapman plays the youngest character in the show.
“Jean, she is 14. She’s very angsty. She is trying to deal with everything that’s going on around her.”
A play built around conflict and family trauma
JB Vanier is the director and artistic director of Hub City Theatre. He says the 2007 American play still feels current because of the way it speaks to family trauma, patriarchy, abuse and healing.
“We often speak of generational trauma, how our parents treat us and how we treat our children, and then . . . people are trying to heal at the same time.”
Vanier says the play does not offer easy answers.
“No play should solve anything, but allow us to reflect.”
Difficult roles, moral grey areas
LeBlanc says his role is tied to one of the play’s darkest threads.
“The character that I play is directly involved in the traumatization of a young woman.”
Gagnon says the play moves through moral grey areas, with characters making difficult choices and no clear divide between heroes and villains.
The production is built as an ensemble, with no single main character driving the story.
Indigenous interpretation and representation
Alora Simon is from Elsipogtog First Nation and has lived in Sackville for the past few years. Simon says her work on the role of Jonna involved both research and personal reflection.
“I have been living in Sackville for a few years now. I graduated (in) 2024, and have just made space in Sackville – working, living, being a local as one would call it.”
Simon says the script includes difficult moments, especially around the treatment of her character, an Indigenous woman.
“There are purposefully problematic scenarios, to explore this world.”
Simon says she also drew on her own Mi’kmaq background while researching the Cheyenne-based context of the role (the Indigenous community of the character in the play), working across different Indigenous perspectives.
Heavy themes, but not without humour
Even with its heavy subject matter, cast members say the show is also darkly funny.
For this Sackville-connected group, that mix of tension, humour and reflection is part of what makes the production worth seeing.
Clinton Davis is a community journalist and audio producer covering the people, events, and ideas shaping the Tantramar region.
