Rating: 3.5
The problem I had with this play is how fast the relationship occurred. They were introduced to each other by a mutual friend and were around each other for a couple of minutes before one of them had to leave. Naturally, they arranged a date for the next evening, which I considered perfectly fine, but once on a date they started expressing their love for each other and decided to move in together. Right after that, a brand new act begins in which they seem to be in a middle of a relationship...
While the rest of the play was brilliant on its own, the lack of the process of meeting and starting a relationship constructed an emotional barrier between me and the characters that stayed firm all throughout the play. I could not fully believe Petra in a manner that I viewed her behaviour as overreacting, even attention-seeking, rather than an act of full-on madness caused by desire/love. I believe that without the first two acts (or with the addition of an act or two between their date and the I love you's ) I would give this play 5 stars, because from the act 3 onwards the dialogue is really captivating, depicting what solitude and unrequited love can do to a woman.
P.S. Maybe the problem, however, lays in the fact that it is a play and hence consists only of dialogues with very few stage directions. Written to be performed (more than to be read), the missing link might be in the silent interaction between the actresses, which cannot be seen in this form. I am, therefore, very interested in seeing the movie version of this work in order to see if the mentioned problem of the abrupt start of the relationship was taken care of and how.