The character Stephanie Abrahams in Duet for One is affected by the condition Multiple Sclerosis (MS).

What is MS?

Multiple sclerosis is a puzzle that has perplexed medical science since it was first described by the French neurologist Charcot in 1868. The disease affects the central nervous system and can, to varying degrees, interfere with the transmission of nerve impulses throughout the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves.
 
Since identification, MS has been the subject of intense, world-wide research but still its cause and cure remain elusive.
 
A simple explanation is conveyed by the term itself. Sclerosis is a Greek word meaning "hardened tissue or scars" and multiple means many. Recurring episodes of MS can cause many scars to appear in the central nervous system as a result of the breakdown of the myelin, the insulating material that covers the nerve fibres. This can result in impairment of motor, sensory and cognitive functions to a greater or lesser extent.
 
But multiple describes other aspects of what is often a frustratingly unpredictable disease. Episodes can occur at varying time intervals affecting different areas of the central nervous system. There is no one symptom that indicates the presence of MS. No single test can establish an accurate diagnosis. It can be benign - in rare cases apparently disappearing altogether after one or two episodes. Or it can progress steadily over many years, bringing about a slow deterioration in an individual's capabilities.
 
Source: MS: The Mystery Disease, MS Australia, 2005. Reproduced with permission. www.msaustralia.org.au

For more information on MS visit the MS Society at www.mssociety.org.uk

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750), a German composer and organist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity. While Bach's fame as an organist was great during his lifetime, he was not particularly well-known as a composer. A revival of interest and performances of his music began early in the 19th century, and he is now widely considered to be one of the greatest composers in the Western tradition, his works revered for their intellectual depth, technical command and artistic beauty. The Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin heard during the course of this production were composed in 1720.

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827), a German composer and pianist. He was a crucial figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western classical music, and remains one of the most respected and influential composers of all time. Born in Bonn, he moved to Vienna in his early twenties and settled there, studying with Joseph Haydn and quickly gaining a reputation as a virtuoso pianist. Beethoven's hearing gradually deteriorated beginning in his twenties, yet he continued to compose, and to conduct and perform, even after he was completely deaf. The recorded cadenza which Feldmann puts on in Act Two is from the Third Movement of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, op.61.
 
Niccolò Paganini (1782 – 1840), an Italian violinist, violist, guitarist, and composer. He was one of the most celebrated violin virtuosi of his time, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique.
 
Felix Mendelssohn (1809 –1847), a German composer, pianist and conductor of the early Romantic period. The grandson of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, he was born to a notable Jewish family which later converted to Christianity. His work includes symphonies, concerti, oratorios, piano and chamber music. After a long period of relative denigration due to changing musical tastes and antisemitism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, his creative originality is now being recognized and re-evaluated.
 
Jascha Heifetz (1901 – 1987), a Jewish violin virtuoso born in Lithuania; the son of a violin teacher and concertmaster he was a child prodigy who took up the violin when he was three years old, made his public debut at seven, and entered the Saint Petersburg Conservatory to study under Leopold Auer when he was nine. Heifetz soon gained fame in Europe, and in his teens became a sensation in America, later settling there and obtaining citizenship in 1925. He has been hailed as the greatest violinist of the 20th century.
 
Isaac Stern (1920 – 2001) a Jewish violin virtuoso born in the Ukraine. His family moved to San Francisco when he was an infant, and he completed much of his training at the San Francisco Academy of Music. Within musical circles, Stern became renowned both for his recordings and for championing promising younger players. Among his discoveries were cellists Yo-Yo Ma and Jian Wang, and violinists Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman. He also played a major role in saving New York City's Carnegie Hall from demolition in 1960 which later had its main auditorium named in his honour.
 
Itzhak Perlman (1945 --) is an Israeli-American violin virtuoso, conductor, and teacher. Born in Tel Aviv, he studied there before moving to the United States to study at the Juilliard School. He made his debut at Carnegie Hall in 1963 and won the prestigious Leventritt Competition in 1964. Soon afterward he began to tour extensively. In addition to an extensive recording career, he has made guest appearances on American television, played at a number of functions at the White House, performed as soloist on a number of film scores, and sung operatic roles. While primarily a solo artist, Perlman has toured with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and collaborated with a number of notable musicians. In recent years, Perlman has also begun to conduct, and in 2007 was appointed Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of Westchester Philharmonic. Perlman also teaches, having held several faculty posts and chairs, and founding the Perlman Music Program in New York for gifted young string players in 1995.

By Lisa Appignanesi
 
"Two people sit alone in a room. One talks and talks, revealing intimacies. The other listens intently, offering up an occasional comment or query. They might be lovers, though they never quite touch despite the presence of a couch. They might be parent and grown child. Or they might be patient and analyst.
 
 The technology of the talking cure that Freud invented over a hundred years ago is in one sense a simulacrum of a love affair. Attentiveness to every aspect of the other, freedom to say anything that comes into your mind without incurring judgment, revelations about the self and the past seen or lived afresh through another’s eyes, secrets teased out, projections onto the other of versions of love learned in childhood, the hope of transformation – these are common to both kinds of scene. So, too, are flashes of hatred, of ‘passion’, and a resistance to the views the other may have of one"