An apt title for a theatre located under the flightpath of Sydney Airport but Irish playwright Mark O’Rowe’s The Approach has nothing to do with air traffic (the roar of which regularly punctuates this production).

Rather, this is a piece about three women – Anna, Cora and Denise – who grew up in the same town (Cork) and have lived their lives in it entirely since. It’s the sort of place you can bump into people you know all the time – whether you want to or not.

Lindsey Chapman in The Approach. Photo © Abraham de Souza

In a series of beautifully written, two-handed scenes around a table, the three women talk about seemingly inconsequential things, as you do. About a new bracelet, about how hard it was to find a particular book in the shops, about the trials and tribulations of kitchen renovation.

As one scene gives way to another (each is separated by some months, possibly more, indicated by a blackout), we come to learn that Anna had a falling out with Denise over Oliver, (recently deceased and the love of Anna’s life). Denise, it later emerges, is Anna’s sister....