The play is set in New York in 1938, at a time when Kristallnacht was taking place in Germany.

Philip Gellburg goes to Dr. Harry Hyman to discuss his wife who has hysterical paralysis of the legs, which seems to be linked to her reading accounts of what is happening to the Jews in Nazi Germany.

In trying to solve the puzzle of her illness, the doctor examines the relationship between Gellburg and his wife, and their attitudes to being Jewish.

A gripping and at times powerfully affecting drama. As almost always in his work, it balances private lives with public morality … It is also an amazingly full-blooded piece, bursting with pain and passion.

“Everything I did is stupid and ridiculous. I can’t find myself in my life.  Or in this now, this thing that can’t even walk. I am not this thing. And it has me. It has me and will never let me go.” – Sylvia