Cat-in-a-box by Morgan Sweeney is an innovative exploration of people’s deep attachments to one another and the comforting monotony even of an unhappy marriage.
Henry is a poet who has brought Kate, his wife, on holiday to the Firth of Lorn to try and rescue their relationship. Unfortunately, someone has meddled with the waste disposal system in the sink and every time something is thrown down it the fuses blow, the toast pops up prematurely and the scene shifts to the same kitchen, but in a parallel universe. Henry searches for a part of the multiverse where Kate loves him, but to no avail as he struggles to find a way out of the repetitive nightmare where Kate is always in the process of leaving him, but each time for a different reason.
The script brilliantly weaves in quantum physics without overly long explanations – using the concept to emphasise the monotonously tired domesticity suffocating the crumbling relationship. Henry and Kate were well acted and captured the worn-down relationship effectively. The ending came as rather an anti-climax, though, and somewhat contrived, compromising Henry’s sweet devotion to his wife as he begins an affair with Flora, the owner of the holiday home and orchestrator of Henry’s status as the Schrödinger’s cat of the play.
Sweeney does a wonderful job creating a refreshingly interesting play out of a wearisome domestic situation – bringing a repetitive scenario to life with an extraordinarily complex theory.