A loose sequel to Henrik Ibsen’s The Master Builder, Weak Nerves is a poetic new play that probes the question of what it costs to be a woman in a man’s world.

Eileen, Katya, and Hildey are trapped in the house of famed, feared, and dead master builder, Hank Saulless. They could all leave at any time they wanted, but it’s not so easy to shrug off the shadow of the man who shaped their lives. Eileen, his doped up widow, gets dropped by her doctor boyfriend—who was also, not so coincidentally, her main supplier—and now must lean on the two young women who took her husband away. Katya, his secretary, jilted by her fiancé, has nowhere else to go. And Hildey, the wild and wounded firecracker from Saulless’ past, never got the retribution she came for in the first place.

So, here they are.

In an attempt to lighten the mood (or darken it?), Hildey begins a game that throws the three women into individual tailspins, forcing them all to take inventory of who they were before Hank Saulless came around, and what’s left of them now that he’s gone. Eileen and Hildey find themselves drawn to one another, while Katya finds herself drawn to a different life. But can the three of them move on while the house, his ghost, still stands?