It’s a familiar scenario from theatre, literature, film and real life too, especially since the #MeToo movement shone a spotlight on how powerful men sexually exploit and silence young women. A middle-aged university lecturer and his 19-year-old female student have an affair, which begins almost as inevitably as it ends. It’s familiar, inevitable and even funny at times, because the lecturer – who is also a renowned author – seems to control the narrative in Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes.

Written by Canadian Hannah Moscovitch, this 75-minute two-hander had its world premiere in Toronto in early 2020, but was cut short by the pandemic – including in Melbourne, where Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes was supposed to be presented last May. Instead, this production directed by Petra Kalive opens MTC’s 2021 season a year after the company turned out the lights.

Izabella Yena and Dan Spielman in Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes. Photograph © Jeff Busby

It’s mostly set in author-lecturer Jon’s university office and his home, where he lives alone because wife number three wife recently moved out. That’s just one detail we learn from Jon’s long monologues about his...