The characters [in "Ulysses in Traction"] scuffle and fight and reminisce and make advances—homo- and heterosexual—and generally allow Mr. Innaurato to get quite a lot off his chest on any number of matters. Needless to say of [this author], most of what is on his chest is original and scathing and humorous. Yet in the midst of the fun (much of it intramural theatre about theatre) we are never allowed to forget the unhappiness beneath—everyone except the cleaning woman is a failure and knows it—and the presence of a maimed young man in considerable agony of spirit.

It must be said, regretfully, that "Ulysses in Traction" never jells. Its principal weakness, I think, is that so much of what we learn about the characters has to be told in monologues—a not uncommon defect these days. With the exception of the assistant head's war recollections, which are stagy and unconvincing, the monologues are good, however, and a scalding eruption by the playwright on the curriculum at Yale is pretty wonderful. Mr. Innaurato, a born merciless satirist, moves in and out of the cabaret style with merry results.