some formal thoughts...

THE THREE INCESTUOUS SISTERS
By Audrey Niffenegger


Three sisters live in a big mansion by the sea. Their parents are dead, and they live by themselves reasonably happily. They live remotely, without much social contact with the outside world. The three sisters have talents, all complimentary in some ways, but incomplete without all 3. Ophile is the cleverest, Clothilde is the most talented and Bettine is the most beautiful. When Paris enters their lives after the death of his father the lighthouse keeper their differences come to a head…and their talents are their destruction (in the case of Ophile and Bettine), but also their salvation (in Clothilde’s case).

1) Character: List the 2 or 3 main characters and their main objective for the play.

Bettine—to fall in love and live happily ever after with Paris, to have it all
Ophile—to win Paris’ affections, to have it all
Clothilde—to preserve the balance between the 3 sisters, to be happy

2) Action analysis:

Inciting incident: The lighthouse keeper dies and so his son comes into the sisters’ lives.

Climatic story event: When Clothilde hears the voice of her nephew again and he tells her to come to the city…or, in our version, I think it could be the reunion scene between the two of them. We could discover they are related—maybe they don’t believe it—there could be more conflict there…

Resolution:
Clothilde and Paris are able to rebuild their lives, as one, this time, with Flying Green Boy and their new daughter (who also has special powers to see beyond) beside them. Bettine and Ophile begin to rebuild their afterlives as well, starting to forgive each other, with the lighthouse keeper watching over them.

Main action (see footnote):
Three sisters desperately cling to their transcendent bond and try to remain happy with just the status quo—them, together, alone in their house.

Main counter-action (ditto):
The outside world dazzles them and offers them joys and horrors that they could never experience inside their bubble…and they crave it—threatening to dismantle everything they know.

Main journey or progression (what essentially changes from beginning to end of the play):

From curiosity to understanding
From bitterness to love
From craving to satisfaction
From jealousy to forgiveness


3) Style and tone: Define the play’s style.

Audrey says it herself—“imagine a silent film made from Japanese prints, a melodrama of sibling rivalry, a silent opera that features women with very long hair and a flying green boy.”

I agree! I think the key words here are silent—it is such a quiet play, that says more with pictures and actions and music than with words. And opera/ melodrama...it is so heightened, so theatrical. I think it’s also very magical and dark—a twisted fable or morality play. More like a Grimm’s brother fairytale than an easy fairytale of today.

4) Main idea: articulate the play’s main idea in a sentence or two. This is a play about … three sisters taking the inevitable and necessary steps outside the boundaries of what they know—it tears them apart until they realize that they can find a balance between family and experience…between familial love and romantic love. That the bonds of family can never be erased, even as new ones form.

5) Interests: List 1 or 2 things that interest you about this play.

The aesthetic of the pictures
The moral questions it raises about loyalty, sisterhood, love…
The dark tone, the destruction and ultimate rebuilding
The magical tone—the powers the sisters have as a trinity
The archetypal parallels

6) Questions: List 1 or 2 questions you have about this play.


What is Clothilde’s reaction to Paris choosing Bettine? Is she jealous? Why the paranoia about the birds? Is that her own form of jealousy? A portent of things to come?

Whose child is the red haired girl at the end of the book? Clothilde and Paris? Or Clothilde and the green boy? (I hope it’s not the latter, that’s a little creepy…)

What was Ophile trying to do with the firecracker?

How is Clothilde and the birds linked to the conception of the green boy?