Play review - "Dark at the Top of the Stairs" by William Inge

 Probably the least remembered of Inge's stage hits even though it too was made into a movie and the original stage production was directed by Elia Kazan. The title indicates a horror movie but this is a family drama, belonging to the universe of Splendor in the Grass, set in the 1920s Oklahoma about a family headed by a woman married to a travelling salesman. He talks a good game, cheats on her and hits her in a fight but is forgiven because that was the way then. Some moving stuff about the passing of time. A beautiful 17 year old boy appears then later turns out to have killed himself because of some anti Semitic taunts at which point I admit I thought "oh come on, Inge". It's fine.