“Bri and Sheila act as parents do receiving home a child of two from the Infants School.
-- Playwright (Act One)

Importance: This stage direction emphasizes the contrast between Joe's biological life and her dramatic life. As the audience sees when she enters, she is a ten-year-old girl. However, she will always have less physical and cognitive ability than a toddler. This means she will never be able to make decisions or take actions on her own behalf. Before Joe enters, Bri and Sheila are arguing. He wants her to make love with him upstairs. She wants to tend to Joe's needs first. This stage direction recontextualizes their argument. Bri's frustration is more understandable, if not more justifiable, when one considers that Joe will always demand as much, if not more, of his wife's attention than a toddler would.

What I mean, she couldn't pretend a passion she doesn't feel. Whereas I can't sustain a...
-- Bri (Act One)