The Cliche Corner

I would personally like to throttle Byron Keith Byrd for creating one of the ugliest sets possible to serve as the Goldfarbs' kitchen. It was so pink it hurt my eyes A and almost got to my stomach. Note to Byrd: I grew up in the town next to Great Neck, and although the people there tend to be a bit showy, they do not have such hideous taste.

As for Geoffrey Hassman, my advice would be to put aside Jacob's Blanket, with all its bathos and cliches, and spend the next year reading scripts and attending plays to absorb the rhythm of language, the art of theatrical dialogue, the subtlety of solid dramatic plotting. Then he might try something with two characters, or just one act. Writing is a talent, but it is also a craft that normally takes years to develop. Jumping into the deep end, as he has with a full-length play spanning two generations and featuring eight characters, has proved to be exceedingly dangerous and no doubt dispiriting. To work on another draft of this play without improving his basic writing skills would be tantamount to drowning for once and for all.