Fefu and Her Friends Themes

As an experimental play that prioritizes the audience’s experience and perception over the actual plot or narrative arc, Fefu and Her Friends uses abstract representation to capture a certain feeling of reality. Of course, the play doesn’t fall under the umbrella of Realism, but its experimental elements do invite audience members to immerse themselves in the lived experience of the characters. This, in turn, places an emphasis on what it feels like to move through…

Fefu and Her Friends is often considered a feminist play, largely because of its tacit acknowledgement and rejection of society’s repressive gender norms. The women staying in Fefu’s house are all very aware of the ways in which restrictive gender dynamics influence their everyday lives, but the play itself actually focuses on the women’s complete independence from men. To that end, no men appear in the play, making Fefu and Her Friends an ensemble…

Although Fefu and Her Friends is highly experimental and abstract, one thing is quite clear: it is, in its most simplistic form, a play that examines the ins and outs of friendship. The play’s title itself demonstrates this, in addition to the fact that the play centers around a gathering of eight old friends. All of the women who have come to Fefu’s house have different relationships with each other. Christina and Fefu…

On its surface, Fefu and Her Friends explores a day in the life of eight friends who have gathered to plan a fundraiser, but the play goes deeper by hinting at the ways in which these women privately suffer in their personal lives. At the beginning of the play, Fefu insists that her husband, Phillip, married her “to have a constant reminder of how loathsome women are.” By saying this, she foregrounds the play…