Bonnie and Annie and their best friends, Tess and Curtis have both been together for twenty years. The cosy world of coupledom has insulated them all from the challenges of a complicated world. But at an anniversary dinner Tess and Curtis casually drop a bombshell – they have decided to split up. There’s no way to predict or control the devastation that follows.

Expecting your friends to stay the same even as the world changes is the sort of self-defeating folly that Joanna Murray-Smith’s sharp pen loves to skewer. In this acerbic comedy of contemporary manners, she again shows that cultural sophistication is no help when dealing with the upheavals of life.

In 2016, MTC Associate Director Sarah Goodes infused Joanna Murray-Smith’s previous play, Switzerland, with the chilling tingle of alpine air. The atmosphere may be warmer in Three Little Words, especially with beloved actor Catherine McClements (The Other Place) returning to the stage, but expect nothing too comfortable in the acute social observations from one of our most acclaimed playwrights.