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Helene Cixous's 1994 play La Ville parjure ou le reveil des Erinyes , first produced at Ariane Mnouchkine's Theâtre du Soleil , insists on both theatre and feminism as valuable political practices in the face of the AIDS pandemic. Disguised in the trappings of Greek tragedy, the play reframes the scandal over the French government's complicity in the distribution of blood contaminated with HIV. As the mother of two young plague victims openly exhorts the audience to take part in righting social wrong, the Furies wreak havoc on the on-stage regime that ignores its citizens suffering. Ultimately the emphasis is not on peaceful resolution but on the critical need for action on social issues. The maternal heroine and strong women figures in this elaborate production insist on the impossibility of divorcing aesthetic considerations of theatre from its responsibility to create public awareness.