Reading this so many years later it's remarkable how much power it retains and how different it is from Williamson's later work. The upper class housewife Kate is very much later Williamson, with her adultery and secret lust (its implied) for her ocker brother in law. Everyone else is working class though.
The build is slower... the first act is Simmons asserting his authority over Ross, and then of the women who come in to complain about domestic violence. Simmons uses this to grope the women and try to seduce the wife. The second act it explodes into violence as they try to collect furniture. Reading this now is still powerful - the issues it raises on domestic violence still relevant fifty years later. Seeing it in 1971 must have been incredible.
The female characters aren't that great - Fiona the dimwit who loves sex and is bossed around by people, Kate the fridgid seeming hornbag. But the by play between Ross, Simmons and the abusive husband is superb and I enjoyed the comic-ish removalist interludes. A very strong piece of work.
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