Theater: Dangling Man

INADMISSIBLE EVIDENCE

by John Osborne

In this stark, scalding and implacable drama, John Osborne draws up a balance sheet of a personal hell. His lawyer anti-hero Bill Maitland (Nicol Williamson) is "irredeemably mediocre," and incorrigibly self-destructive. He indulges in lacerating sado-masochistic diatribes, pops pills and suffers interminable hang overs. His joyless office liaisons sate only his lust, and he leaves his wife, mistress and daughter parched for love. In short, he is a mess, but he is the kind of mesmerizing mess that more men see in the shaving mirror in 1981 than did in 1965 when the play opened in...

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