A play with a big reputation – it won the Pulitzer, helped launch the careers of Elia Kazan and Montgomery Clift, was done by Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. I have to admit that I wasn’t wild about it – although reading it I felt that it might play better than it reads. It deals with a nuclear family, mum and dad and two kids, who go through variation adaptations of history (an ice age, after a way), along with the sexy Sabina. Mum and dad are sort of like Adam and Eve. Wilder mixes things up by having the characters refer to the fact they are in a play, argue with the stage manager, talk about other roles they’ve played. It’s a real pot pouri of stuff here – a whole bunch of ideas and concepts, obviously put together by someone intelligent; it’s often funny and there’s some solid drama too (eg the reaction of the wife when the husband leaves her for Sabina, the son getting up the dad) and a terrific role in Sabina – but I don’t think it’s aged well because we don’t get all the references now. (Also I think theatre-goers are less familiar with the bible). Reading it I was going “gee this is clever” more than enjoying it – but it might play better on stage.
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