I think this may well be the sort of play that you have to see in performance, interpreted by some great actors, before you can really work out what is happening.
I don't think I can review it without talking about the whole play so THIS IS A SPOILER.
The play opens with Lenny, a man in his early thirties, being rude to his aggressive, widowed father, Max, in whose home he is still living. Soon Uncle Sam, a taxi driver arrive and Max is rude about Sam's lack of a wife. Then Joey, the youngest son who is training to be a boxer arrives. Soon, Teddy, another son, and his wife Ruth arrive. Teddy seems tentative about letting Ruth meet his family, although that is the reason they have travelled from the United States; there seems to be some secret about who Ruth is.
When the whole family assemble we discover Ruth used to be a 'body model' and that Teddy is a PhD teaching Philosophy at an American University. Then Joey, who is irresistible to women, about whose sexual exploits Lenny boasts, takes Ruth upstairs but doesn't get to go "the whole hog". Teddy doesn't seem worried about his wife being bedded by his brother, nor does he flinch when Max proposes (backed by Lenny who is, it appears, a pimp) that Ruth goes on the game (she agrees but on expensive terms including a three bedroomed flat in Soho and a maid) and part-time services the brothers. Sam reveals that 'Mac', the gangster friend on Max, had Jessie, wife of Max and mother of the three brothers, in the back of Sam's limousine; Sam then collapses unconscious on the floor. Teddy goes back to America.
So what's that all about then?
I haven't got a clue.
April 2016; 82 pages
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