Nous sortirons de nos cuisines - Épisode 4 - Épilogue : on a réussi, mais on n’a pas fini (1982-2024)

With her documentary series Nous sortirons de nos cuisines (We Will Leave Our Kitchens), Jenny Cartwright offers us a testimony of extraordinary value. By tracing the history of the first feminist theatre troupe in Quebec, she paints a sweeping historical fresco of the most exhilarating decades of the women’s movement, while also shedding light on key chapters of Quebec’s history. Built from the stories of the troupe’s four members—Solange Collin, Carole Fréchette, Johanne Doré, and Véronique O’Leary—we are given a behind-the-scenes look at the struggles that led to, among other achievements, the legalization of abortion, the establishment of public daycare, the recognition of domestic labor, and maternity leave—all from the unique perspective of this revolutionary troupe.

One wonders why we haven't heard more from the women interviewed in this work—their political insight is simply astonishing. Young feminists will rejoice in gaining access to this memory, delivered with the brilliance we’ve come to expect from Cartwright, now a leading figure in audio storytelling with this ninth sound creation. The radio format could not be more fitting: it allows voices to unfold, ideas to expand, and speech to finally exist without interruption.

This final episode brings this historical journey to a moving close. We have come to feel friendship and love for these women, and it is with regret that we must bid them farewell—now strengthened by the memory of their struggles. We enter more deeply into their individual stories, while also grasping the underlying distance between their different testimonies. The Théâtre des cuisines could not escape personal conflicts, minor and major betrayals, questions of ego. Yet tenderness resists bitterness, and pride endures.

Though they did not pass down to the futur generations the world they had dreamed of, these activists nonetheless measure the distance traveled from the world of their grandmothers. The clown’s stance, championed by O’Leary, offers a truly vital release amid the darkness of today’s world. If the suffocating despair she evokes in the face of the world resonates deeply with me, so does the resilience she embodies, her existential inventiveness, and her thirst for life and knowledge, which rekindle my hope.

In these exceptional, deeply human women, I have found role models. Thank you, Jenny.

Naomie Décarie-Daigneault
Tënk's Artistic Director