Les Belles-Soeurs
Critique • Quotes
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