In this short course we will study three plays that invite an interrogation of monogamy in long-term romantic relations. What motivates and complicates the breaching of a couple's exclusivity? What constitutes a marriage and what constitutes infidelity? What would betrayal entail? We seek neither to judge nor victimize but to combine close reading of the play-texts with discussion of the questions and themes they raise, as well as attention to performance strategies and potentialities, delving into the experience of passion, trust and its betrayal as expressed in words, in deeds and in embodied responses on stage. How does the staged event stimulate/ convey/ challenge performed experience? Particularly, we will investigate manifestations of empathy (as distinct from sympathy) among actors and audiences.