Listen, Little Great Owl is a sweeping story about love, loss, and genocide in colonial America.
The historical moment of the play is well-documented: the sanctioning by General Jeffery Amherst, commander of North American troops after the French and Indian War, of the use of smallpox-tainted blankets to kill Shawnee and Lenni Lenape residents of the Ohio Valley, where they had been rising up in anger—and achieving a decent amount of success against the British.
The story is one of betrayal:
- A country, king, and military leaders betray a continent full of Indigenous people.
- A colonel (Henri Bouquet, Amherst’s second-in-command) betrays one of his officers—Simeon Ecuyer, captain of the newly constructed Fort Pitt—blackmailing him.
- Ecuyer himself, as a result of the blackmail, committing the ultimate betrayal, telling his wife, Ann, that the blankets she is delivering to her Shawnee friend are a peace offering rather than the weapon they are.
Synopsis
The plot of Listen swirls around Simeon Ecuyer, captain of Fort Pitt (around which Pittsburgh subsequently sprang up) and, along with his wife, Ann, a recent survivor of smallpox.
Act I
After losing their young son to the disease a year before, the captain of the new fort is desperate not to lose his dear wife. Unfortunately, Ann, who also was devastated by the loss, has taken to walking through the forest alone and is adept at evading the troops assigned to follow her. In order to keep her safe, Simeon convinces her to allow him to teach her how to shoot his pistols. In short order, Ann is forced to use them to save a young Shawnee woman (Dancing Willow) from being assaulted by an English officer. Unfortunately, that officer turns out to be Simeon’s new commanding officer, Henri Bouquet.
Act II
It becomes clear that the Native Americans are winning the battle: Chief Pontiac began a rebellion in Detroit that is spreading across the Ohio Valley, and British men, women, and children are being slaughtered in large numbers. Bouquet convinces Jeffery Amherst (commander of all Colonial troops) that it’s a great idea to infect the “savages” with smallpox, using tainted linens. At the same time, Bouquet blackmails Ecuyer into making Ann deliver those blankets to Dancing Willow, under threat of hanging Ann for having threatened Bouquet with a pistol. Ecuyer has to decide whether he will betray his wife in order to save her. Ultimately, he does.
Bouquet defeats the Indians at nearby Bushy Run, lifting the siege on Fort Pitt, and “accidentally” lets slip the part Ecuyer—and an unwitting Ann—played in the defeat. Horrified, Ann rushes to the Shawnee village to find her friend on her deathbed. Dancing Willow’s grandmother, The Stone Woman, asks Ann to take Dancing Willow’s young son to the next village, so he may not become sick. As they’re leaving, Ecuyer rushes in—to save her—but Bouquet shoots Ann, for giving “bold comfort to the enemy.”