Realistic picture. Characters visible from head to toe. Queen Anna of France, a splendid18-year-old with tall disheveled powdered rococo wig...

ACT III — “The Legacy and the Choice”

Claire discovers a secret abolitionist ring that Anna helped establish, embedded in Russian and Ottoman diplomatic networks.

Final diary entry: Anna returns incognito to Paris to spread abolitionist sentiment—using the salon culture. She lives out her life under an assumed name.

Claire now faces her own choice: return to her comfortable world, or use her ancestral land to establish something radical.

Final Scene: Claire, in her ancestral château, opens it as a sanctuary and arts workshop for displaced African creatives and scholars in exile, continuing Anna’s legacy not just through blood, but action.

Present:

Claire investigates Anna’s route, visiting Istanbul and St. Petersburg. She meets scholars and archivists who recognize Anna’s coded initials in anti-slavery pamphlets.

Her relationship with Khalil deepens. He challenges her to see her ancestor not as a romantic hero, but as a mirror for modern privilege and agency.

ACT II — “Anna's Secret Life”

Diary Flashbacks:

Anna recounts being captured by Barbary pirates, bound for slavery but rescued by an Ottoman governor.

Instead of returning to Versailles, she fakes her identity and travels:

Lives briefly in Istanbul under a false name.

Joins a Persian envoy eastward.

Reaches St. Petersburg, where she meets Gannibal at Peter the Great’s court.

Anna secretly corresponds with Enlightenment figures, poses as a Turkish noblewoman, and advocates for abolition through coded writings.

Her bodyguard and lover, a Black pirate named Musa, helps her remain hidden but emotionally tormented.

ACT I — “Disillusionment and Discovery”

Present Day:

Claire works in southern Turkey, coordinating aid for African and Syrian refugees.

Her empathy is worn thin. After witnessing yet another refugee tragedy, she questions her ability to help.

She begins a relationship with Khalil, a survivor with both trauma and warmth.

News arrives: a distant cousin has died, leaving her a historic château in Provence.

Back in France:

Claire finds dusty trunks, old maps, and a hidden diary — written in old French, signed “Anna, Queen of France. 1711.”

Gannibal

Based on Abram Petrovich Gannibal — Peter the Great’s African godson.

Ambitious, aloof, a genius in engineering and statecraft.

Shares a complicated, intellectual love with Anna.

The Black Pirate

Former slave turned rogue pirate, loyal to Anna.

Anna’s longtime protector and secret lover; serves as a symbol of her freedom and inner turmoil.

MAIN CHARACTERS

Claire de La Roche

36, French, raised with privilege but works with African and Syrian refugees in Turkey.

Elegant yet gritty; deeply empathetic but exhausted by the trauma around her.

Culturally curious, self-aware, skeptical of legacy but emotionally tethered to it.

Khalil

32, West African refugee (Senegalese or Malian), former musician and political activist.

Calm, charismatic, deeply intelligent. His dignity rekindles Claire’s passion for justice.

Queen Anna of France (Fictional character)

24 when captured, cousin of the French king, presumed dead but actually alive.

Sharp-witted, bold, a proto-feminist. Refuses to return to her royal prison.

Lives undercover across the Ottoman Empire, Russia, and Asia.