"Perfect Arrangement" a comedy by Topher Payne

It’s 1950, and new colours are being added to the Red Scare. Senator Joe McCarthy is warning of the infiltration of US government departments by communists. He also warns that "sexual deviants", gay men and women, pose a risk to national security because they are "mentally unstable" and susceptible to blackmail.

Two U.S. State Department employees, Bob and Norma, have been tasked with identifying sexual deviants within their ranks. There’s just one problem: Both Bob and Norma are gay, and have married each other’s partners as a carefully constructed cover. Inspired by the true story of the earliest stirrings of the American gay rights movement, madcap classic sitcom-style laughs give way to provocative drama as two “All-American” couples are forced to stare through the closet door.

Please note: This play contains discriminatory language of the period.