'If only' is one of the most pointless but least resistable phrases in the language…. Sisterly Feelings attempts in a small way to put some such proposition to the test. At the end of scene one, the toss of a coin determines whether unhappily-married Abigail or her spinster sister Dorcas gets off with loose-limbed Simon. There are thus two versions of scene two, though both are family picnics, and another two of scene three, though these are reached by choice, not chance….

The point … is that each and every version comes to an identical conclusion. Whether or not Abigail has spent scene three cavorting in and around a tent with Simon, she ends up opting for husband and motherhood. Whether or not the same scene brings together Dorcas and Simon for a cross-country race he has unwisely entered, the two sisters finish the play arm-in-arm, united in renunciation...