They're bored.
They're middle-aged and the kids have left home and they are slowly going mad.
Then Jonathon and Holly discover tango dancing.
Or Holly does, anyway, and Jonathon grimly traipses along in tow.
But Argentinian tango teacher Marta, who is also a sociobiologist, has Jonathon's number.
Backwards in High Heels was inspired by a famously cutting comment from Ginger Rogers about dance partner Fred Astaire that she did everything he did "but backwards and in high heels".
The play looks at primal urges, perspectives on life and male and female viewpoints on relationships.
It was written by Stuart Hoar, whose trademark colouring of characters, relationships and dialogue lights up the script.
"It's a beautifully written play.
It uses dance and science as metaphors for life.
The science side is really interesting.
It's all about the primate brain and all that carry-on," actor Clare Adams says.
"Dance is used in different ways all through the play. They're a middle-aged couple and the kids have left home. She's keen to learn to tango, but he's not so keen. But then they start getting lessons. It's a very New Zealand story."
The actors had to get their feet around tango for the play and were intensively trained by Dunedin tango teacher Kylie James.
"We all had to learn to tango, which was really quite challenging," Adams says.
"But after a while you start to realise tango is about the unspoken."
Tango dancers Karyn Taylor and Andreas Penckwitt provide a continuous moving backdrop to events.
Another unsual feature of the play is that it has been created to tour community halls and intimate urban venues.
"It's going to be nice taking it around urban areas and playing it in unconventional theatre spaces," Adams says.
"We thought it would be an interesting experiment to take the play to people, rather than getting them to come and see a play in a traditional theatre. It will be interesting, too, because a lot of the halls we're playing in are where people are learning dancing."
Backwards in High Heels was directed by Richard Huber, choreographed by Karyn Taylor and features Dunedin actors Patrick Davies, Anna Henare and Clare Adams.
Director Richard Huber says integrating dance into a dialogue-based play has given the work a unique layer.
"As the characters encounter each other throughout the course of the story, their journey is echoed and given richness, not only by their own dancing, but also by the presence of two tango dancers."
Backwards in High Heels opens at 8pm today in St Martins Hall, Northeast Valley.
It will also play in the Waitati Community Hall tomorrow, in St Mary's Church Hall, Mosgiel on Friday and Burns Hall, First Church, on Saturday.
Other performance dates are: Port Chalmers Town Hall (October 17), The Kensington Tavern (October 19), Coronation Hall, Portobello (October 20), St Clair School Hall (October 21), Maori Hill Community Centre (October 22) and Burns Hall, First Church (October 23).
