Why We Are Here Is An Impenetrable

A Playwright, Especially A Playwright Whose Work Deals Very Directly With An Audience, Perhaps He Should Pay Some Attention To The Nature Of The Audience Response - Not Necessarily To Learn Anything About His Craft, But As Often As Not Merely To Find Out About The Temper Of The Time, What Is Being Tolerated, What Is Being Permitted.

There Are Only Two Things To Write About: Life And Death.

Why We Are Here Is An Impenetrable Question.

In The Theater, Which Is A Sort Of Jungle, One Does Have To Be A Little Bit Careful. One Mustn't Be So Rigid Or Egotistical To Think That Every Comma Is Sacrosanct. But At The Same Time There Is The Danger Of Losing Control And Finding That Somebody Else Has Opened A Play And Not You.

In The Thirties A Whole School Of Criticism Bogged Down Intellectually In Those Agitprop, Social-realistic Days. A Play Had To Be Progressive. A Number Of Plays By Playwrights Who Were Thought Very Highly Of Then - They Were Very Bad Playwrights - Were Highly Praised Because Their Themes Were Intellectually And Politically Proper. This Intellectual Morass Is Very Dangerous, It Seems To Me. A Form Of Censorship.