Correct Again!
Once again, Mr. Isherwood, you are correct! Motherhood is a distinctly over-rated enterprise–not being a mother, I feel (with you) that I can say that with total objectivity. It is certainly no topic for any real theatrical enterprise–since it is so common, it cannot help but be cliché! But leave it to artists to think that the common can be universal rather than merely trite! The real villain here, though, as you indicate at the end, is children–it is the culture of childhood (with its sippy cups and diapers) which ruins perfectly good people and turns them into perfectly awful mothers (my wife and I happily avoided this fate–snip snip!). And it is the base evolutionary obsession with procreation which leads to the sort of cult of fecundity to which mothers (and theaters, in this case) fall prey. As a proud sterile man, I am tired of all the obvious representations of fertility onstage, tired of the sort of sexual rambunctiousness which could lead to depictions of such worn out idioms as “childhood” and “motherhood”! There really is no excuse to perpetuate this sort of nonsense any more. I much prefer plays which have a preoccupation with the fading dignity of real manliness, which see the world in a kind of cold blue light of once-removed reason and wit. I have a feeling you would agree. You are fighting the good fight, Mr. Isherwood, and with your acumen and authority so rigid and unquestionable (and so true!), I hope you will keep up the good work: keep destroying incorrect theater! Onward, soldier!
— Dean Thropwelle, NYC