About the Play:

The Fairies Are Thirsty (English version of Les fées ont soif) is a full-length drama Denise Boucher, translated by Alan Brown. This ironic, tragic and liberating work explores three women archetypes struggling with the gender politics, daring us to picture a world free of regressive gender roles, and pleading with us to see women for whom and what they themselves yearn to be.

The Fairies Are Thirsty is a daring, passionate and poetic exploration of the role of women through all time. According to the 19th-century historian Michelet, "Les fées" were women who would rather sing than pray. For this crime, they were punished by being imprisoned in containers that would be opened only at the end of time. The play takes this image and focuses on three women – a frustrated housewife, a prostitute dealing with trauma, and the Virgin Mary – fight to break out of the stereotypes in which they've been imprisoned for centuries. At the end of the play they stand alone, "before themselves," "renewed," and ask the audience to imagine a world in which such stereotypes do not exist.

Les fées ont soif is a feminist work that set off a firestorm of controversy when it premiered in 1978 at the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde in Montréal. The play went on to many translations and productions in Quebec and abroad. The English version is called The Fairies are Thirsty. This controversial yet successful play has enjoyed numerous revivals and continues to resonate with modern audiences.

Cast: 3 women

What people say:

"A long scream of revolt against the condition in which women are placed in society… A cultural event, a social demonstration." — Le Devoir (Montréal)

"A powerful script and an important play." — Montréal Gazette

About the Playwright:

Denise Boucher is a Quebec feminist poet, playwright, and essayist. She is mostly known for her play Les fées ont soif / The Fairies are Thirsty which stirred controversy and protest, especially with the Church, for its portrayal of the Virgin Mary as a symbol of women oppressed by a male dominated society. She lives and continues to write in Montréal.