Overview

As the play begins, Anne and Mervyn, a seemingly well-settled middle-aged couple, are awaiting the arrival of Helen and David, a younger couple who were formerly their neighbors and close friends. Their reunion begins on a light and humorous note, but as the after-dinner talk grows more serious we become aware that the two couples had once engaged in an adulterous arrangement—and both have found it difficult to deal with the self-recriminations which this has created. Mervyn has begun to drink more than he should; Anne is coldly cynical; and Helen and David have turned to group therapy. But their problems still remain and, as the conversation becomes more revealing—and provocative—the underlying values of human existence are drawn into question. In the end the inescapability of the deep-seated guilt is powerfully evident with Mervyn, his vulnerability touchingly evident, sinking into tearful, defeated despair.