Cost of Living

Cost of Living, a play by Martyna Majok, premiered in 2016 at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts. The title of the play refers not only to the monetary costs of staying alive, but the emotional costs of love, life, and connecting with another person. The play demonstrates that basic survival is expensive and a privilege in a capitalist society; three of the four characters struggle with the cost of housing, medical care, and food.

Money doesn’t negate other types of marginalization. Cost of Living presents, through four characters, the way oppression manifests at the intersection of, among other things, disability, race, nationality, gender, age, education, and financial privilege. In the urban settings of New Jersey and Brooklyn, each of the characters has become isolated and distrustful of others, emphasizing the way city life in particular can leave marginalized people on the outskirts of community and communal support.

The play has two storylines—one between John and Jess, the other between Eddie and Ani. These remain separate until the final scene, when Eddie and Jess make a tentative, precarious connection of friendship and support, and their loneliness outweighs their differences.