Dec 21, 2009

The House of Blue Leaves | Critical Overview

Since its first production in 1971, The House of Blue Leaves has been a controversial work. This controversy stems from that fact that Guare blends several, seemingly contradictory elements: black comedy and farce with drama.

For example, Henry Hewes in the Saturday Review of Literature maintained ‘‘John Guare’s Off-Broadway hit The House of Blue Leaves . . . outrageously yet responsibly depicts the doomed career of Artie Shaughnessy. . . .’’ Later in the same review, Hewes contended, ‘‘Guare’s comic facility is inextricable from an...