Pauline explores the life and final days of write and performer E. Pauline Johnson (1861-1913).  Johnson was of Kanien'keháka (Mohawk) and English heritage, and wrote and performed poetry that explored her biracial identity.

"In the libretto for Pauline, Margaret Atwood reconstructs the scene of Pauline’s final days in her adopted home, Vancouver, as she finally succumbs to breast cancer. The morphine administered for her pain by the compassionate Dr. Nelles creates a hallucinogenic lens through which she is visited by the apparition of her dead grandfather, the Six Nations chief Smoke Johnson. In waking dreams, her stage-partners and lovers swirl and combine as they reunite. Attended (somewhat competitively) by friends, supporters, and the complicated figure of her older sister Eva, Pauline’s memories, regrets, and triumphs are layered and circular refrains."

- Lorna Brown, from The Capilano Review