Nine lives weave together in ways known and unknown in Andrew Bovell’s piercing drama, Speaking in Tongues. Leon is married to Sonja, Jane is married to Pete. By chance, each spouse meets the other’s one night and wind up in motel rooms. Pete and Sonja resist the one-night stand; Leon and Jane do not. A lonely man, Neil, pines for the love of his life, Sarah, who moved on decades ago. A woman, Valerie, goes missing and her stiletto was last seen in Nick’s car. Love, marriage, infidelity and betrayal are all tackled in this tense, electrifying play about the relationships between lovers, strangers, and the infinite ways people may wound one another.

Andrew Bovell adapted Speaking in Tongues for the screen as Lantana (2001).