A.R. Gurney has written over 40 plays and I’ll wager he’s had more use of perhaps 6 characters than any playwright in history. This prolific playwright is in the Alan Ayckbourn/Neil Simon class of writers who continue to find gold as they probe the same mines, those that exist in their own private worlds. Mr.Ayckbourn has found wisdom, humor, sadness and joy in the smalltown middle class of Britain, Mr. Simon has found the same in his Brooklyn-Manhattan-Hollywood Jewish relatives, co-workers and pals. But only Gurney has stuck to WASP Mom and Dad, Sister, Grandfather – sometimes they comprise the entire cast of one of the plays, sometimes others who touch their lives enter as well. [Read more...]
