A young playwright faces a tough question : does the play he has written contain a fair representation of his family, or a false one? The audience gets a chance to judge for themselves, since both families appear on stage throughout. In Tremblay's words," ... I decided to return to the very source of creative work, that notorious first play which supposedly contains the seeds of everything yet to come. And ultimately, I found myself confronted with the fundamental question : did I have the right? Do I still have the right?..."

« CLAUDE : Even if I act in good faith? / MADELEINE I : You can't act in good faith. Because you're not us… / CLAUDE : That's where you're wrong, Mama… Listen… Will you listen to me? (MADELEINE I sits next to CLAUDE.) It's always been very easy for me… to slip inside other people. To… feel them. I've always done that. The rest of you call it spying… I call it living. »

"Tremblay's strength lies in his depiction of the ambiguities of family ties, the resigned compromises, grudging understandings, the modi vivendi tacitly arrived at, often to the angry amazement of outsiders." Martin Hoyle, Financial Times, London, February 19, 1990.