THE STORY: Sally, a waif-like young wife and mother originally from South Dakota, has settled into a rather cramped New York City apartment with her two young (and unseen) children, while her husband is on the road selling detergents. Desperate for a friend, Sally strikes up a conversation with her next-door neighbor, Marsha, a cynical, wise-cracking native New Yorker who is impatiently waiting for her own husband to complete his residency in orthopedics. Although complete opposites—the country mouse and the city mouse—the two women gradually warm to each other as they exchange ever more personal (and amusing) confidences about their hopes and fears, their likes and dislikes, and their relationships with their two very different husbands. In time, despite occasional misunderstandings, they become each other’s main moral supports, as the homespun Sally grows more worldly and the neurotic Marsha regains her self-esteem—with both benefiting more than they might realize from the growing closeness and mutual admiration which, inevitably, makes their eventual parting all the more poignant.
This touching, and funny play traces the growing understanding and friendship which springs up between two very different young wives who find themselves neighbors.
“…has wit, charm, compassion, is emotionally probing, often extremely funny, and grants its audience an opportunity to sympathize with, as well as care about, the characters.” —Variety.
“…much of the play is very funny, but it is not a farce, and the characters are written with as much sympathy, as humor.” —The New Yorker.
“…Sybille Pearson’s very warm and often very funny play is truly an engaging retelling of the tale of the town mouse and her country cousin.” —New York Post.
