LEWISTON – The world premiere of “La Souillonne, Monologue sur Scène,” by noted Maine author Normand Beaupré, will be presented Saturday and Sunday, April 14-15, at the Franco-American Heritage Center.

“La Souillonne” is a one-woman play about a former millworker who pours out her heart while sharing her life experiences. The long dramatic monologue is entirely in the Franco-American dialect, “a tour de force,” said Beaupré, because the dialect – a blend of standard French, Québécois expressions and some anglicized elements – is the oral expression of Franco-Americans.

It was a challenge for Beaupré to come up with the proper written form of a given word or words of the dialect.

A former millworker, La Souillonne knows what hard work is and what transpired in the mills. She talks about the traumatic loss of the only man she ever loved and the sad results of a love affair of one of her co-workers. All in all, this woman has had a very hard life. Scorned by her pastor and the entire neighborhood, she manages to pull together her views on the things she knows best. Her story is both funny and sad.

Beaupré describes this woman as the amalgamation of all the marginalized, abused and scorned women he has met or heard of over the years. She is the Franco-American version of “La Sagouine,” by Acadian author Antonine Maillet, a long monologue delivered by an Acadian washerwoman in her Acadian dialect.

La Souillonne (the loose woman) is direct in her speech and minces no words when she talks about some of the people who have crossed her path. The play is one long monologue on 14 themes, including les amouracheries du moulin, la boisson, les histouéres du Christ, Qui chus, and la canne de bouton (infatuations in the mills, drinking, Christ’s stories, Who I am, and the button can).

“La Souillonne” was taken from the author’s first work in French, “Le Petit Mangeur de Fleurs.” He found the character La Souillonne so colorful and so filled with deep sentiments that he decided to make her the central character of his play. Marie Cormier, a well-known Maine actress recognized for her work in the Franco-American dialect, will assume the role.

The book, “La Souillonne” has become a best-seller in Lewiston-Auburn, according to Donat Boisvert, coordinator of the Franco-American Collection at the USM Lewiston-Auburn College.

Peerformances will begin at 7:30 p.m. April 14 and at 2 p.m. April 15. Tickets are $10, $8 for students and seniors. For reservations, call 689-2000. For more information, log on to www.francoamericanheritage.org.