Doug’s review of Fefu and Her Friends: New, Expanded Edition > Likes and Comments

I just recently acted in a production of this show, and when I first read this play I was also quite confused like you were, and didn’t understand or even like a lot of choices made by the playwright. The play makes a lot more sense when you see it performed, and truly take the time to analyze it, but it is quite brilliant. Of course being in the play (and me playing three different characters) meant I had to do a lot of analyzing and scoring of the script and after doing that, this is one of my favorite plays. The whole play has themes of feminism, love, death, mental health, disability and LGBTQ representation, and simply how the world is so much different for women than it is men. This play is just so important to us women out there and is quite ahead of its time being written in the 70s. Also, if you watch the documentary about María Irene Fornes, it brings a newfound respect to this play.

I think the ending is an incredible full circle moment. I understudied Fefu, Julia, and Cecilia in this production, and understudying Fefu and Julia helped me understand so much of this play—it’s incredibly nuanced. Julia’s entire long monologue is about how men/society treats and perceive not only women in this world, but people with disabilities as “less-than” or “not strong enough”. And there is clearly a connection between Fefu and Julia as Julia discussed in her monologue that the judges (aka men/society) are after Fefu because she is a smart, strong women. That’s why the judges tore Julia down and made her disabled as she says in her monologue “They said I had to be punished because I was getting too smart”. Then, as the play continues, you see Fefu is slowly being affected by these “judges” aka society/men, as she has her monologue about the black cat coming to her kitchen and how she’s afraid of it but continues to feed it. This I interpreted as the cat also representing the negative and toxic masculinity in society and how no matter how scary it is for a woman, we feel we must feed into this behavior because it’s what we “should do”. Therefore, as Fefu becomes more afraid throughout this play, the less “strong” and “smart” she is—she becomes more confused, like when she hallucinates Julia walking. This is also shows how “the judges”/society are now getting to Fefu as they did to Julia, because they both are hallucinating.

This relates to the last scene in the play, because Fefu would never try to do what she did to Julia or accuse her, but she isn’t her self anymore just like parts have Julia has been lost by “the judges” (other characters discuss this earlier in the play on how she isn’t herself)—Fefu has started to become corrupted. And as for why she goes to get the gun and shoot a bunny, earlier in the play, there is a very important line said by Cindy: “She (Fefu) used to hunt, but she doesn’t hunt anymore. She loves animals), further explaining how much Fefu has changed and been “corrupted”. But I also interpreted this as Fefu thinking the only way to save herself and Julia from this corruption of the toxicity in society, she must gain back her strength. I think she believes doing this, in a way, shows society she is not afraid to be bold and go against what society tells women they can’t do (the men always hunted, not women). And as for the reason Julia then dies, throughout the entire play Julia discusses how she constantly think about death, and how she has a fear that “I will die, for no apparent reason”. In Julia’s long monologue, she more than once says that if she doesn’t listen to “the judges” or if Fefu doesn’t listen to the judges, the Julia will die (in the script she makes the “cutting throat” gesture). Since the very end of this play has Fefu shoot the bunny as an act of rebellion, I interpret that “the judges” finally had enough of these strong women rebelling, and did exactly what they threatened to do, and what Julia was worried they would do—kill her.

Obviously in a literal sense, shooting a bunny won’t kill a human and Fefu and Julia aren’t literally tethered to each other in this way, but again, this play is all about symbolism. Hope this helps explain the ending/themes of the play (and also why it’s so important to me and many other women out there, not to mention the fact that this play is entirely women and each women is important and has very distinct characteristics and arcs—they all have substance, which is rarer in theatre these days, and this was written in the 70s).

I'm glad you found the play production to be a rewarding experience to participate in, and you explicate nicely what you were able to discover in it through arduous study. So I applaud you for that. However - did you ever stop to think that an audience doesn't have the luxury of going minutely through each line to discover such connections? Reading it through once, I found it not only thoroughly incomprehensible - but quite frankly, rather boring!

And even though I enjoy site-specific and experimental theatre (I just did a reread of Adele Edling Shanks' brilliant California Plays cycle, for example - and I already cited Tamara: A Play as another excellent use of such experimental theatrics), I doubt that I could sit through a performance of this and really get much out of it. Sorry! :-( But you can chalk it up to my chromosomal make=up!

I totally understand your perspective! This play is not for everyone and definitely isn’t an easy play that you can read once and understand. My hope with my comment wasn’t to necessarily convince you to enjoy the play, but to simply answer some of the questions you had written. I definitely feel that all those thoughts I shared should be at least mostly conveyed by the actors if one sees this performed on stage, or, it should be if the production is done correctly. Because, as you very accurately said, most people don’t go through plays that deeply to get these messages. I’m at least glad you gave it a shot! It’s definitely a unique play and not everyone’s cup of tea haha.

i really appreciate both the og review and your explanation, emma! i had similar points of confusion, but it's fascinating reading someone's perspective on the symbolism under the surface!!