When Greg invites his new girlfriend, Samantha, to stay with him for a few weeks while she is ‘between places’, he expects this to be a short sleepover, not the start of a long-term cohabitation. On their first day together, a sudden and extreme Covid lockdown traps them in his tiny flat with no obvious end in sight, accelerating their relationship forward before either of them, least of all Greg, is ready.

From the adoption and illness of a pet cat, to clashes over work, privacy, food, and future plans, they find that typical couples’ milestones become both compressed in time and exaggerated in importance. While both of them do their best to adapt, even the smallest of disagreements threatens to blow up into a major argument and challenges the very issue of their compatibility.

Over the course of twelve months living together in close quarters, Greg and Samantha discover that in order to survive together, they must find their own vaccine. Not for Covid, but for their differences, understand that what they need is not to solve their problems but rather find a way to live with them. By the end, what began as an accidental arrangement during an extraordinary period in history becomes the basis for a strong partnership built on compromise, support, and mutual respect.

Close Quarters is a two-handed situational comedy, requiring only a simple living room set and minimal props (sofa, television, some crockery). The roles are gender- and orientation-flexible, the setting non-geographically specific, and has three additional characters who appear only as recorded voices. The running time is approximately 30-40 minutes.