Online Play Reading Group

Written in 1965, Les Belles-Soeurs portrays 15 Québécois women expressing their anger, desperation and frustration loudly, rudely and audaciously. Germaine Lauzon has won a million stamps in a contest. She invites her family and neighbours into her kitchen to help paste them into booklets. Fighting for any power in their suffocating lives, the women yell, backstab, dream and steal in grand theatrical style.

Characters:

• GERMAINE LAUZON
• LINDA LAUZON, Germaine’s daughter
• ROSE OUIMET, Germaine’s sister
• GABRIELLE JODOIN, another sister
• LISETTE DE COURVAL, neighbour
• MARIE-ANGE BROUILLETTE, neighbour
• YVETTE LONGPRÉ , neighbour
• DES-NEIGES VERRETTE, neighbour
• THÉRÈSE DUBUC, Germaine’s sister-in-law
• OLIVINE DUBUC, Thérèse’s mother-in-law
• ANGÉLINE SAUVÉ, neighbour
• RHÉAUNA BIBEAU, neighbour
• LISE PAQUETTE, Linda’s friend
• GINETTE MENARD, Linda’s friend
• PIERRETTE GUÉRIN, Germaine’s youngest sister

A once-celebrated actress, Arkadina dominates every room she enters, leaving little chance for anyone else to shine. Her son, the tormented young playwright Konstantin, yearns to escape her shadow, revolutionise theatre, and win the heart of Nina, a luminous young woman with dreams of the stage. But when Nina's gaze turns instead to Arkadina's lover, the celebrated writer Trigorin, egos and passions collide with devastating consequences.

Characters:

• RINA ABKADINA, an actress
• CONSTANTINE TREPLIEFF, her son
• PETER SORIN, her brother
• NINA ZARIETCHNAYA, a young girl, the daughter of a rich landowner
• ILIA SHAMRAEFF, the manager of SORIN’S estate
• PAULINA, his wife
• MASHA, their daughter
• BORIS TRIGORIN, an author
• EUGENE DORN, a doctor
• SIMON MEDVIEDENKO, a schoolmaster
• JACOB, a workman
• A COOK
• A MAIDSERVANT

"Uncle Vanya" is a play by Anton Chekhov that explores themes of disillusionment, unrequited love, and the search for meaning in life. Set on a rural estate in Russia, the narrative revolves around the interactions of its main characters: Uncle Vanya, his niece Sonya, the retired Professor Serebryakov, and his young wife, Yelena. Vanya, who has devoted years to managing the estate for the professor, grapples with the realization of the professor's selfishness and ineffectiveness. The doctor, Astrov, also becomes entangled in the lives of these characters, sharing his frustrations about their stagnation and his own disillusionment with society.

Characters:

• ALEXANDER SEREBRAKOFF, a retired professor
• HELENA, his wife, twenty-seven years old
• SONIA, his daughter by a former marriage
• MME. VOITSKAYA, widow of a privy councilor, and mother of Serebrakoff's first wife
• IVAN (VANYA) VOITSKI, her son
• MICHAEL ASTROFF, a doctor
• ILIA (WAFFLES) TELEGIN, an impoverished landowner
• MARINA, an old nurse
• A WORKMAN