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Les Belles-Soeurs

Critique • Quotes

Les Belles-Soeurs, 1972 edition1972 edition
By Michel Tremblay
Publication details ▽ Publication details △

First performance
1968

Literature form
Play

Genres
Comedy

Writing language
French

Author's country
Canada

Length
Two acts, approx. 16,000 words

Notable lines

LINDA: God, what's that? Ma!
GERMAINE: Is that you, Linda?
LINDA: Yeah. What are all these boxes in the kitchen?
GERMAINE: They're my stamps.

— First lines, trans. John Van Burek, Bill Glassco

MARIE-ANGE: You wouldn't catch me having luck like that. Fat chance. My life is shit and it always will be.

 

MARIE-ANGE: I talk the way I talk, and I say what I've got to say. I never went to Europe, so I can't afford to talk like you.

 

GERMAINE: I'll re-furnish the whole house. I'm gonna get a new stove, new fridge, new kitchen table and chairs. I think I'll take the red one…. Oh, it's so beautiful, Rose. I'm getting new pots, new cutlery, a full set of dishes, salt and pepper shakers…. Oh, and you know those glasses with the "caprice" design. Well, I'm taking a set of those, too. Mme. De Courval got a set last year and she paid a fortune for them, but mine will be free. She'll be mad as hell…. What?.... Yeah, she'll be here tonight. They've got those chrome tins for flour and sugar, coffee and stuff…. I'm taking it all. I'm getting a colonial bedroom suite with full accessories. There's curtains, dresser-covers, one of those things you put on the floor beside the bed….

 

WOMEN: Thursday and Friday.... Same thing.... I work. I slave. I kill myself for my pack of morons.

 

LISETTE: You'd never meet a Germaine Lauzon in Europe. Never! Only people of substance. In Paris, you know, everyone speaks so beautifully and there they talk real French.

 

RHÉAUNA: But Angelique, a club! It's worse than hell!
PIERRETTE: If hell's anything like the club I work in, I wouldn't mind eternity there!

 

GERMAINE: My God! My God! My stamps! There's nothing left! Nothing! Nothing! My beautiful new home! My lovely furniture! Gone! My stamps! My stamps!

— Last spoken lines, trans. John Van Burek, Bill Glassco

 

Critique • Quotes