When the bough breaks...

"Maybe it’s the fault of our generation. Where did we get the idea that we have a right to be happy?”  

Stan is a stand-up comic who has seen it all before, been there, got the T shirt. But, in truth, he’s still trying to deal with the impact of his own parents’ divorce when he was a child. 

‘A room. A bed. A stranger. Her life one long series of stage directions in an absurdist play.’ 

Rachel is a forty something  teacher locked in an unhappy marriage; her sense of duty and responsibility towards her daughter acts as a shackle keeping her imprisoned in a  loveless relationship.

‘We muddle through. Much like most people really.’

When she discovers that her husband has been having a five year affair she decides that enough is enough.  Looking to crawl from the wreckage of this broken relationship, she tries to repair things with her daughter, and begin life anew.

‘I find it’s always a good idea to have an exit strategy before you start anything’

Faced with trying to balance her own happiness with that of her daughter, can Rachel ever make decisions that reflect the demands of these twin masters in her life?

The fractured narrative of this story reflects the turmoil of Rachel’s thinking as she endeavours to put her life back together again and recover from all that this situation has dealt her.

But perhaps Rachel’s situation is closer to Stan’s than she might like to think as their differences and similarities are thrown into stark contrast in this play.

And the winners and losers? That’s down to the Art of War