Les Belles Soeurs

How does the play comment on capitalism and consumerism? What do you think the playwright was trying to say? Use evidence from the text to support your answer.

The play was revolutionary because Michel Tremblay wrote it entirely in joual. Research the history of joual. Why was it significant in the play? If you read the play in its original language, how did joual function in the text? If you read a translation, how did the translator communicate a sense of the dialect?

Imagine that you are producing this play today in your own country or region. What issues do you think are relevant? Is there anything that hasn’t aged well? How would you adapt it? What language or dialect would you use to take the place of joual?

Do you think that Germaine, as a protagonist, is sympathetic? Why or why not? Are you rooting for her? Do you feel her pain? Which characters do you find sympathetic and why?

Discuss the form and structure of the play. Pay particular attention to the moments that the storytelling departed from realism. Choose one of those instances and explain what effect you think the non-realism has on the way the text functions.

How would you explain the overall message of the play? What do you think audiences are supposed to take away? Use evidence from the text to support your answer.

All 15 characters in the play are women, but their lives are very much shaped by men. What is the effect of only staging the women? How do they talk about and illustrate the way men are present in their daily lives? Choose one woman to focus on and sketch the significance of the men she talks about.

What does this play say about generational conflicts and the differences between generations? How are Linda, Lise, and Ginette more progressive than their parents and grandparents? Less progressive? How would you relate this to generational differences that you experience in your own life?