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Sympathy Pains

by Rosalind Adler

"Breadwinner wives with confused husbands - head for Sympathy Pains at Park Theatre. Sharp and funny"

Libby Purves (The Times)

Snappy dialogue throughout.......A believable middle-aged couple at the end of their tethers.

The Stage

“I’m so glad I came - I was so impressed by your writing and your acting” 

Barry Humphries

 

A comedy drama about a pregnant man. 

Guy is a failure - out-earned big time by his wife, Chris.  The marriage is under pressure: she feels knackered, he feels purse-whipped. Faced with one rejection too many, Guy reaches his lowest ebb - and that’s when the miracle happens.  He is with child!  He is special, chosen, Messianic. The conviction takes hold and the couple have to renegotiate their marriage to find a way of  helping him stay afloat without the rubber ring that is his delusion. Having explored a multitude of options, they revert to a startlingly old-fashioned solution and the play closes with some uncomfortable questions about how we navigate our way through changing roles between men and women today.

This is a comedy about a seismic social shift in the power struggle between the sexes.  Female breadwinning is a phenomenon at all income levels and is transforming every aspect of our lives. 

Ros Adler won a Times Critics’ Choice Award 2012 for her play Jubilate!