What a mysterious and delightful play is American playwright Annie Baker’s John (2015), a meditative comic drama full of exquisite detail and suggested psychological insights. Sarah Goodes directs with sensitivity and imagination for the Melbourne Theatre Company, in the Fairfax Studio, and the fine cast, led by Helen Morse and Melita Jurišić, perform it with much grace and expert comic timing.

Set in a quaint bed and breakfast in out-of-the-way Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the story centres on a young couple – Elias (Johnny Carr) and Jenny (Ursula Mills) – and their rapidly unravelling relationship. Elias isn’t sure if he really loves her, and is, anyway, struggling with depression. Jenny can’t help telling little fibs, and occasional large ones, sometimes for no reason but restlessness; but, having invested so much effort in the relationship, she is unwilling to let it go.