What’s a deprived housewife to do when her garden has gone unloved, untouched, for far too long?

A Slight Ache follows Flora (Susan Priver) and Edward (Henry Olek), a married couple who have lost touch with each other, both figuratively and literally.
As they sit at the table in their garden, Flora begins making small talk about the flowers in her garden while Edward becomes increasingly annoyed while trying to read the newspaper. A wasp then demands their attention which they then trap inside their marmalade. It is then that Edward notices a strange man over the hedge, who Flora has apparently already made contact with. Flora goes a step further and asks Edward to invite the man into their home.

As the audience sits through the 72-minute production, the odd man who Flora calls “Barnabos” (Shelly Kurtz), resembles a homeless man who is selling matches in their quaint village. Barnabos doesn’t speak, however, Edward can feel himself being humiliated and ridiculed by the man once it becomes evident Flora knows him.
Flora becomes so encapsulated with Barnabos that she has an orgasm while rubbing on his unkept body. She longs to have her garden touched – loved as Edward is preoccupied with himself.
Has Flora replaced Edward with Barnabos?

The chemistry between Flora and Edward is authentic due in part to their being life partners off stage.
“A Slight Ache is an intimate portrait of a long term marriage that reveals the terror of living with someone so long without ever really knowing them,” explain Priver and Olek, who are also partners in their personal lives. “It’s all about what’s going on underneath the words. When we first performed this play in 2006, we had only been together two years. Seventeen years later, we bring a very different perspective to these characters and to their relationship.”
As I watched the play you couldn’t help but sympathize with Flora and Edward who have fell out of love with Edward not realizing it until he is forced to once Barnabos appears.
A Slight Ache is written by Harold Pinter (1930-2008) who achieved international renown as one of the most complex and challenging post-World War II dramatists. His plays are noted for their use of understatement, small talk, reticence and even silence to convey the substance of a character’s thought, which often lies several layers beneath and contradicts their speech. Pinter’s plays are ambivalent in their plots, presentation of characters and endings, but they are works of undeniable power and originality. They typically begin with a pair of characters whose stereotyped relations and role-playing are disrupted by the entrance of a stranger. The audience sees the psychic stability of the couple break down as their fears, jealousies, hatreds, sexual preoccupations and loneliness emerge from beneath a screen of bizarre yet commonplace conversation.
The creative team for A Slight Ache includes scenic designer Jeff G. Rack, lighting designer Ellen Monocroussos, sound designer Chrisropher Moscatiello, costume designer Michael Mullen and graphic designer Kiff Scholl. The production stage manager is Sarah Dawn Lowry. Dance On Productions produces in association with Linda Toliver and Gary Guidinger.
Performances of A Slight Ache take place Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m., August 26 through October 1. There will be two preview performances on Thursday, Aug. 24 and Friday, Aug. 25 both at 8 p.m. Tickets range from $20 to $40 (reserved seating). The Odyssey Theatre is located at 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., West Los Angeles, 90025. For reservations and information, call (310) 477-2055 x 2 or go to OdysseyTheatre.com.