The Open Couple

A man and a woman: they once were in love, but little remains of that. Old news so far. However, to free themselves from the rut, the couple decides to open up their relationship. Rather, he does and she plays along - or at least tries to. Soon he presents her with a parade of women, whilst she struggles to find herself new lovers. Unfortunately, the demands on women in the dating market are incomparably higher – additional to her lacking the sincere interest to actually find a new partner. Her strategy: rekindling her husband's old flame through emotional blackmail in the form of a series of creative suicide attempts. However, by this point all that is left of their former love is mutual respect at most. Yet, once she meets a young, handsome professor, it is her husband standing on the verge of suicide. The relationship lies open and with it all its disparities and imbalances, the limits of fidelity and jealousy, the freedoms one takes and those one is willing to give.
Dario Fo and Franca Rame's celebrated tragicomedy from 1983 turns the audience into advocates in the trial of a failing marriage. In times of fluid relationship models and online dating, this sharply pointed work still accurately deconstructs the hypocrisies and contradictions of bourgeois partnership.