Jenna Fincken’s one-woman play anatomises a relationship as it spirals into coercive control, from the first day to the last. A countdown in the backdrop logs the relationship’s sequence: 824 days to go, 459 days to go, and so on. We do not know if it is counting down to escape – or otherwise – and the guessing game builds a potent tension.
Lou, a primary school teacher, describes Ryan as “disgustingly nice” on first meeting him: he takes her to an expensive restaurant and looks for a house by the sea when she speaks of it as her dream. Once there, he isolates and controls.
