'Profoundly affectionate': A splendid, surgically accurate play about intimacy

LONDON — The Royal Court Theatre bills itself as a "writers' theatre," specializing in cultivating new talent.  What a good choice they made in Debbie Tucker Green, whose new play, a profoundly affectionate, passionate devotion to someone (-noun) is an examination of the way men and women communicate — or don't — with each other in intimate relationships. Anyone who has talked across the gender chasm will recognize the elliptical dialogue as accurate to a near-surgical degree. Here is the trailer for the show:

Although the title makes no syntactical sense to me (shouldn't the unsaid word in parentheses be an adjective?) the play made perfect sense. We join a youngish couple, A who is female and B who is male, in mid-argument. The script requires them to be "Black," although I have no idea why, since their situation is universal.  The dialogue begins like this:

A:                So is it—

B:                 no,

A:                Is it that? you're —

B:                 No it is/ not.

A:                so it's

B:                 there is no 'it's' its nothing there's nothing

A:                you're not—

B:                 no.  Nothing.  There isn't.

Their accusations range from talking too much to talking too little, revealing sexual dissatisfactions ("I didn't like it I never liked it") and new demands for privacy.  They have a child, and then another; her mother dies, and she remains silent for 10 months.

The next couple is Woman and Man, middle-aged and filled with grievances. All she wants is an apology. All he wants is gratitude. Eventually they part, and now— years having passed — Man is in a romantic relationship with A and B's daughter. There are disputes about the age difference.

a profoundly affectionate is a sad and fascinating play in which — surprisingly, since the playwright is female — most of the sympathy seems to belong to the men.  The small theater space is cleverly configured, with the audience seated on swivel stools surrounded by a raised platform. The actors stand and occasionally sit on benches, but there is no action other than their drawing lines and circles on the walls made of green chalkboards. (This seems designed merely to take up time and to fake meaningfulness.)  Like children, we watch the men and women talk just slightly over our heads, drawing us into their intimacies.

Directed by the author, the cast is superb: pitch-perfect and able to create depth of character quickly with just a few gestures, like watching a gifted sketch artist at work.  Lashana Lynch and Gershwyn Eustache Jnr, as A and B respectively, are particularly endearing and substantial; Gary Beadle as the older man, Meera Syal as his wife, and Shvorne Marks as his girlfriend find the  postures that reveal personality. a profoundly affectionate is very much an actor's play, and it has found its actors.