Much can (and should, and has) been said about the play's careful, successful depiction of a love story shaped by gender, class, trauma, and more. But what truly makes this script gripping is how richly drawn the bond between the women is – even as the relationship is doomed to end how it does, the audience never abandons their naive, adolescent hope that things might work out. The result is a story that feels just as sorrowful as it does inevitable, a Greek tragedy in Rococo wigs.
Much can (and should, and has) been said about the play's careful, successful depiction of a love story shaped by gender, class, trauma, and more. But what truly makes this script gripping is how richly drawn the bond between the women is – even as the relationship is doomed to end how it does, the audience never abandons their naive, adolescent hope that things might work out. The result is a story that feels just as sorrowful as it does inevitable, a Greek tragedy in Rococo wigs.