| There's a character in the play, a novelist, who appears to be a stand-in for Greenberg. He feels his career is over and is depressed and uninvolved with the proceedings for the most part. I got the feeling (pure speculation) that the play itself was an expression of Greenberg's current depressed state of mind. This from a playwright who, like his counterpart in the show, was once a brilliant success. Also, the current status of world affairs which brings many of us to the point of despair, seems to color everything in the play. The whole thing was a sad experience and puzzling: why MTC produced it, why Lynn Meadow directed it (a better director might have made something more coherent out of it), why they spent so much money on the production? Maybe its production seemed a way to support an old friend who had fallen into despondency. Greenberg, not a personal friend, has provided me with so many exhilarating nights in the theater, at MTC and elsewhere that I want to support him through whatever dark night of the soul he's going through and hope he comes through it and writes more great plays again soon. I hope the critics don't pile on too viciously. |
