''Belle Moral'' is a play by

Ann-Marie MacDonald Ann-Marie MacDonald (born October 29, 1958) is a Canadian playwright, author, actress, and broadcast host who lives in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. MacDonald is the daughter of a member of Canada's military; she was born at an air force base near ...

which premiered at the Shaw Festival in 2005. A substantial reworking of MacDonald's earlier play, ''

The Arab's Mouth ''The Arab's Mouth'' is a 1990 play by Ann-Marie MacDonald which she later revised to create '' Belle Moral'', at which point most of the Arabic references were cut. The title refers to a shape found on a stone by the central character—a circle ...

'', ''Belle Moral'' is a gothic comedy set in Scotland in 1899. Following her father's death, Pearl MacIsaac, a young woman who is an amateur scientist, struggles to discover the secret about her family's past which her father had kept hidden with the help of the family doctor. The play embraces a complex range of turn-of-the-century thought, especially including

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...

's theory of evolution, contemporary medical beliefs and the concept of

eugenics Eugenics ( ; ) is a fringe set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter human gene pools by excluding people and groups judged to be inferior or ...

. ''Belle Moral'' was published in 2005 by

Playwrights Canada Press Playwrights Canada Press is a Canadian publishing house founded in 1984 by the Playwrights Guild of Canada. It was incorporated in 2000 as an independent company. Notable books *''The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God'', Djanet Sears ( ...

References

Plays by Ann-Marie MacDonald 2005 plays Fiction set in 1899 Plays set in the 1890s Plays set in Scotland {{2000s-play-stub