["Earth Worms"] is a black comic version of a rapacious society consuming its young….

"Earth Worms," Mr. Innaurato's most ambitious effort, is the theatrical equivalent of a grand opera—and perhaps it would benefit from a score by a contemporary Puccini. The characters are larger than life, and the play is bigger than the stage at Playwrights Horizon….

[The] play is a nightmare of grotesqueries….

One of the prolems with this play is that too much attention is paid to the exotic background and not enough to the principal characters, an odd triangle composed of a young man in doubt about his sexual identity, his hillbilly bride [Mary] and a 70-year-old homosexual [Bernard] who strikes up a Pygmalion-Galatea relationship with the young wife.

The last two—opposites allied in lovelessness—are, by far, the most interesting people on stage. They are original creations, particularly the aged homosexual….

[Mary] is an innocent with a forked tongue, a nervy country girl who easily rises to anger. Mr. Innaurato never seems to create placid characters; his people are the opposite of meek.

The pivot of the play is the young man …, torn between his wife and the transvestite. As written …, the character seems too indecisive and mercurial. He moves, but does not build to his climactic, guilt-ridden confession.

The flaws of the script [are] the wavering focus, the cluttered background….

There are many moments, however, particularly between [Bernard and Mary] that are pure Innaurato. "Earth Worms" is both a weird love story and a disturbing look at man's indifference to man.