The assignment was to present the fallout of a husband who arrives unannounced from afar, modelled on the Trojan war story of Agamemnon, or the results of a beauty contest as in Helen of Troy and the judgement of Paris.

I chose to triangle Chloe and her lover Eddie, the real estate salesman, with Chloe’s hockey player husband, Matt, who arrives home a day early because his team won their playoff games 4-1. Eddie has helped Chloe sell and buy their last two homes, each one more lavish than the last.

We meet Eddie and Chloe in an ecstatic embrace, as Matt comes in, looking for Ava, his daughter, a preschooler, whom Chloe believes is watching her own little TV- but Matt spies her outside, and mourns their family. Eddie accuses him of having his own lover, “that singer who’s expecting.”

The three adults realize that their lives have shifted possibly for the better, with new partners, but Ava’s life is in the balance, and her abandonment has already begun.

I wanted a sense of urgency, of events changing all lives forever, and used very short lines after the opening lovers' aria between Eddie and Chloe. I also asked Chloe to explain her behaviour, and show how lonely she’s been, subordinate to Matt’s career. Matt and Chloe also get a brief moment to recall their own love, in the surprise of seeing it fall apart in front of them. Offstage Ava becomes focal to all three adults at the end, and the echoing of her name suggests that already she has grown apart from them all, or is in danger, or worse, lost.

- Katherine Koller