Cigarettes and Chocolate

Gemma's unexplained silence is the catalyst for a reaction amongst her friends and lovers both unfaithful and unrequited, which starts as mild irritation but becomes increasingly uncontrolled as her passive but forceful refusal to speak drives them to distraction. Anthony Minghella's Cigarettes and Chocolate is a one act play and, at its most basic level, it is about a woman named Gemma, who gives up speaking for Lent. The drama then evolves from the ways in which the people in her life react to her sudden silence. Of course, the longer her silence endures, the more the others run on and on, sometimes about utter trivialities, and sometimes about matters of profound importance.