House Arrest

A couple is trapped in a loveless cohabitation, tied by a mortgage that in better times seemed an obvious choice.  As she spends another night out on the town, he watches from their balcony, a cigarette bringing small comfort.  The pretence has all but gone, but their situation is inescapable, as global crisis pierces heart and home.

We both know it.  We’ll never get out of here.  We’re buried for life with this pain.  And it’s not fair now, you throwing my Peter Pan Syndrome in my face, my pathological fear of commitment, my refusal to give you a wedding or children…  I’d give you all of that now, and more.  Because we trapped ourselves forever when we signed our names on those papers.  I trapped myself and I trapped you, here, with me; I buried us alive, together, Paula, in soil so sterile that not even flowers will grow from our corpses.

This translation of House Arrest was commissioned by The English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre.  It is part of a set of short plays, along with Voicemail and Chalk Land.

Contact me for more details.  

Back to translation page, or see more about my work with the Royal Court.