While Cost of Living does grapple with financial struggles, Martyna Majok’s play is more concerned with the emotional cost of getting through each day.

Premiering in Massachusetts in 2016, and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2018 – so well before the phrase was on everyone’s lips – Cost of Living zeroes in on two people with disabilities and their carers; two people who also have very obvious needs.

It’s about giving and receiving help, the emotional difficulties and humility that involves, and how we all need connection with others to get by.

Mabel Li and Oli Pizzey Stratford in Cost of Living. Photo © Pia Johnson

A different production to that mounted by Queensland Theatre and Sydney Theatre Company for Cost of Living’s recent Australian premiere, this is director Anthea Williams’s Melbourne Theatre Company debut.

She lives with a disability, as does half the cast of four, so it’s a significant moment for inclusivity and the visibility of disability in local theatre.

The play is set in New Jersey. John, a rich Princeton student with cerebral palsy, engages Jess as his carer. Despite being a Princeton graduate, this child of...