Fifty Words

Synopsis

Adam is a successful New york architect. His wife, Jan is preparing to start an internet company. Their nine year-old son is away at a sleepover. This will be the fi rst evening they've had to themselves in years. But what starts as a chance for seduction, triggers a savage rollercoaster of revelations and recriminations. Acrimony, passion and humour combine in this bruising deconstruction of an unravelling marriage during the course of one pivotal night, which has resonances of Long Day's Journey Into Night and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.

Our Review:

Petra Schofield - 22 May 2013

This stunning play by Michael Weller is the final production for what has been an extraordinary American Season at the Ustinov Studio. Laurence Boswell directs this hard hitting, witty and heartbreaking tale of a married couple home alone for the first time in nearly 10 years as their young son is at a sleepover. What begins as a night of dinner, seduction and champagne uncovers stories, truths and accusation that turn their world upside down. The brilliance is in the detail and the true discussion of, what is love? “there should be fifty words for it, like Eskimos have for snow.”

The beauty of this intricate, painful drama lies in the title, when speaking about love how can it really be measured and compared? To be allowed different levels of love would provide us all with a rationale and permission to ensure that our conscience would be clear and life would certainly be far simpler. However the complexity of the human brain and emotions ensures that this could never happ...

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