The Plays of Beth Henley: A Critical Study (review)

In the second chapter of his The Plays of Beth Henley: A Critical Study, Gene A. Plunka debunks what he takes to be two dominant paradigms in Henley criticism: first, that the playwright's oeuvre belongs in the tradition of the Southern Gothic and owes a debt to writers such as Flannery O'Connor, Eudora Welty, and Tennessee Williams; and second, that it is feminist. Pointing out that Henley had never read O'Connor and had admitted to being only remotely familiar with Williams (3), Plunka discounts them as early influences on the playwright. Similarly, he concludes that the stereotype of Henley as a "feminist banner carrier" cannot be "sustain[ed]" in light of "some of the later plays" (1). Thus eschewing both Southern Gothic and feminist interpretations, Plunka proffers his own theory, which takes its origin from Freud's 1930 work Civilization and Its Discontents; according to Freud, Plunka says, society, like the individual human, has matured to a state where the original libidinal id conflicts with the ego and superego of social convention and control. Recurring conflicts emerge between society's constraints on and expectations of the individual, on the one hand, and the desires of the self, on the other. Drawing also on Albert Camus' well-known treatment of The Myth of Sisyphus, Plunka argues that Henley's characters, like Camus' Sisyphus, "engage in a quest for dignity and meaning in a world defined by the neuroticism that produces the existential despair, anomie, and angoisse endemic to our lives in modern society" (37).

In chapters three through eight, the critic applies his theory to Henley's work, discussing one or two plays per chapter in chronological order. The bulk of the book, this section proves a disappointment, and readers hoping for significant insights into Henley's dramaturgy will find these chapters deficient, even tedious. Plunka does little more than summarize the plays and apply his theory of modern neurosis in formulaic fashion. In doing so, he assumes that all of Henley's characters must be left in "existential despair," with escape impossible, unable to jump out of the cookie-cutter theory that Plunka moulds. Refusing to acknowledge variations in Henley's characters, Plunka forgets the playwright's clever sense of humour and the complexity of her work. For example, in his reading of The Miss Firecracker Contest, Elain "can never become aware of the absurd condition, like Sisyphus, who endures; instead, she succumbs to it" (94–95). Is this really true? The author short-changes both Elain and her "adopted sister," Carnelle, ascribing to them only minimal levels of awareness – a perception that many readers surely would contest. What happened to the possibility of joy, selfhood, or transformation that audiences often find in The Miss Firecracker Contest? Might one even argue that Elain's rendezvous with MacSam towards the play's end provides evidence that even the "wicked step-sister" can undergo a transformation of sorts?

In contrast to its rigid and repetitive later chapters, the book's thorough and helpful first chapter makes a major contribution. Plunka introduces readers to Henley's intriguing life and career, and he also details the responses of theatre critics to the Pulitzer-Prize winner's dramas. He illustrates how Henley's plays evolve, thus providing an important window into the playwright's process of composition. Surveying the dramatist's life and career – from her Jackson, Mississippi childhood and early interest in community theatre, through her college years and entry into regional theatre, then on to Broadway and the West Coast – Plunka traces her development as an artist, acknowledging her versatility as playwright, actor, director, and screenwriter. He provides humorous sketches, especially of Henley's early days when, with depleted finances, she attempted to get her plays staged. For instance, Plunka recounts how Henley designed her 1978 Crimes of the Heart, modelled on Chekhov's Three Sisters, so that the repertory company could make double use of the actors, with "Irina as Babe, Masha...