Theater: From Womb to Gloom

The Last Analysis, a first play by Novelist Saul Bellow, is part Jewish-family comedy, part psychoanalytical cliché, part spoof of psychoanalysis—and all claptrap. An ex-TV comic known as Bummy (Sam Levene) re-enacts his life from womb to gloom with total traumatic recall, including toilet training, sibling rivalry, and a recurring dream that he shares his bed with a white sow. Says Bummy’s lawyer: “He’s like a junkie on thought.”

It would be more accurate to say that his thoughts are junky. On opening night Sam Levene tried valiantly to assist Analysis by sweeping some of the dialogue under his tongue. The trouble is that Bellow has given him more bad lines than he can possibly throw away.