The Natural Daughter

[1] Drawing on the real story of a young woman caught up in the French Revolution, it explores the impact of uncontrollable events on ordinary people's lives.

Ignoring the Governess's veiled warnings, Eugenia prepares eagerly for her presentation at court; she writes a sonnet pledging loyalty to the King, and gives way to the temptation to try on the dress and jewellery the Duke has provided for the occasion.

In response to the Cleric's gory account of Eugenia's death, the Duke resolves to preserve her memory by converting his misery and anger into revolutionary action.

Act IV – Harbour square Eugenia, disguised in a veil, and the Governess gloomily await their enforced embarkation into exile, to a disease-ridden island from which few return.

Eugenia discovers that the letter appears to be signed by the King, and attempts suicide; her rescue by the Monk, whose apocalyptic vision predicts the downfall of civilisation, persuades her that altruism on her home ground, in the faint hope of a chance to revive her country's fortunes, is preferable to exile.