I Don't Like Symbolism That Hits You

The Condition Of The Theater Is Always An Accurate Measure Of The Cultural Health Of A Nation. A Play Always Exists In The Present Tense (if It Is A Valuable One), And Its Music -- Its Special Noise -- Is Always Contemporary. The Most Valuable Function Of The Theater As An Art Form Is To Tell Us Who We Are, And The Health Of The Theater Is Determined By How Much Of That We Want To Know.

What Happens In A Play Is Determined To A Certain Extent By What I Thought Might Be Interesting To Have Happen Before I Invented The Characters, Before They Started Taking Over What Happened, Because They Are Three-dimensional Individuals, And I Cannot Tell Them What To Do. Once I Give Them Their Identity And Their Nature, They Start Writing The Play.

I Do Think, Or Rather I Sense That There Is A Relationship - At Least In My Own Work - Between A Dramatic Structure, The Form And Sound And Shape Of A Play, And The Equivalent Structure In Music. Both Deal With Sound, Of Course, And Also With Idea, Theme.

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.

Every Writer's Got To Pay Some Attention, I Suppose, To What His Critics Say Because Theirs Is A Reflection Of What The Audience Feels About His Work.