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   appletrees Teacher
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   eNotes Editor

   The play is an exploration of women's roles throughout history, as the unusual and fantastical first act shows. Marlene interviews various women from history and invites them to talk about their accomplishments and tragedies; most of the stories are troubling and horrific, as when Pope Joan is stoned in the street. The second is a more intimate, realistic look at Marlene's professional and personal life; she is an executive at an employment agency who gave up a child when she was younger. We also meet the sister who raised Marlene's child, and the chid herself, Angie. It is suggested that Angie may well fall into her biological mother's footsteps, and thus perpetuate the notion that women's roles through history continue to make them society's victims, judged and punished for their own strengths and desires. This suggestion of cycles and patterns repeating themselves allows the play to comment upon women's roles and function throughout history and into the future.

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   Posted by appletrees on Sunday August 23, 2009 at 1:36 PM