The Arrangement
A play in two acts
A darkly comic examination of the unwritten contracts between people who share a life—the small silences, the practical kindnesses, and the occasional necessary cruelty of intimacy.
Format
Two acts, ~95 min
Cast
4 actors (2M, 2F)
Ideal For
Studio theatres, festivals, touring productions
Synopsis
Elena and Mihai have been married for twenty-two years. They are not unhappy. This is its own kind of problem. Over the course of a single evening—during which their adult daughter has arrived unannounced and their downstairs neighbour will not stop knocking—they are forced to articulate, for the first time, what exactly they have agreed to.
The Arrangement is a play about the architecture of long-term love: the load-bearing walls, the decorative flourishes, and the rooms you simply stop entering.
Script
The Inventory
Elena and Mihai’s evening is interrupted by their daughter’s arrival. Old habits reassert themselves—until they don’t.
The Renegotiation
After the interval, the three characters must contend with what was said—and what can no longer be unsaid.
Themes
The unspoken contract
What we agree to without agreeing—the implicit terms of long-term relationships.
Comfort vs. honesty
The play asks whether stability built on avoidance is still worth having.
Characters
52. Sharp, controlled, and generous in ways she would never describe as such. She has organised her life around what is manageable and has, until tonight, been quite satisfied with the results.
54. A retired engineer with an unexpectedly gentle demeanour and a habit of going very still when things become uncomfortable. He loves his wife. He has never quite known what to do with that.
27. Their daughter. Arrived unannounced with a bag that suggests she is staying and a demeanour that suggests she is fine. She is not fine.
Excerpt
Act I, Scene 3
Production Notes
Minimal set: a kitchen table, four chairs, a window. The play lives in the pauses.