The Theatre: 'The Day the Whores Came Out to Play Tennis'
"The Day the Whores Came Out to Play Tennis" … is a farce about the invasion of a Jewish country club by eighteen of the tennis players. (p. 146)
The play is Mr. Kopit's first major entry since "Oh Dad, Poor Dad." There is no plot. Again he makes use of all kinds of old movie and burlesque stunts for his effects…. The tone of the comedy is more mocking than satirical (at least, I could see no indication that Mr. Kopit wants to change or do away with Jewish country clubs), and the targets of his mockery are varied. A lot of what is said is coarse and indecent, but it didn't strike me as vulgar or out of keeping, and some of it is funny. "Oh Dad" dealt in part with a namby-pamby young man and his rapacious mother. This time, we have a namby-pamby young man and his contemptuous father…. "Oh Dad" was farce, too, but … it was farce with an undertone of horror. In "The Day the Whores," there is no undertone of anything. (pp. 146-47)
Edith Oliver, "The Theatre: 'The Day the Whores Came Out to Play Tennis'," in The New Yorker (© 1965 by The New Yorker Magazine, Inc.), Vol. XLI, No. 6, March 27, 1965, pp. 146-47.
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One Work at a Time: Each Avant-Garde Play Stands on Own Merits
Theatre: The Kopit Plays