Three women

by Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath, the poet who committed suicide, wrote the radio play Three women between 1960 and 1963. A poem for three voices. I first heard the name of Sylvia Plath many years ago from a person whom I loved greatly, another female poet.

And then, a short time afterward, I happened to come across a French edition of Three women.

Sylvia Plath was greatly concerned about the music of the words she used. But we are using a translation and so, in a way, we are more free in that respect, and able to focus more on the relationships and characters.

THREE WOMEN before, during and after giving birth.

Three lives. Three voices. Three musical instruments. Three tongues. Three different solitudes.

And yet they are only one, and a woman can see herself in each of the three. It is the feminine profundity of the text, one and with many faces at a time, translated into wonderful words, that attracted us and made us want to put it on stage.

We are seeking, by giving a body to each, or three bodies to just one, its hidden ambiguity and play.