Penelope lives quietly with her son Paul, having rebuilt a life surrounded by gentle, harmless men – a violin-playing doctor and a vacuum cleaner salesman – nothing like her husband Harold, a larger-than-life adventurer long presumed dead. But when he suddenly returns, everything unravels. The play also slips into scenes set in paradise, where we meet Wanda June, a young girl killed by an ice cream truck on her birthday. The tone of this play is sharp, absurd, and openly satirical. It takes aim at masculinity and heroism with little subtlety, resulting in something both funny and deliberately strange – an original play that must be amazing on stage.
“- You’re thinking with your brain instead of your body. That’s why you’re so tense ! Forget Norbert. Relax. It’s body time.
– I have a brain
– We all do. But now it’s body time. Relax. Ideally, the body of a woman should feel like a hot water bottle filled with Devonshire cream. You feel like a paper bag crammed with curtain rods. Think of your muscles one by one. Let them go slack. Relax. Let the brain go blank. Relax. That’s the idea-that’s my girl. Now the small of the back. Let those knots over those kidneys unsnarl.”