Of the quarter's new plays it is to be hoped that Dannie Abse's clinical-comical study of north-north west madness in a mental institution, Pythagoras, is taken up by theatres other than the enterprising Brum Studio of Birmingham Rep…. (p. 56)

[The main character is] a patient who believes, like Pythagoras, in the transmigration of souls—believes himself in fact to be that famous Greek.

Although Mr. Abse had a lot of fun at the expense of medical authorities—his hero impersonates inadvertently the head of the mental hospital—the fun remained good-natured and illuminative of character. Indeed, it was the observation of the characters, both inmates and staff, which gave Mr. Abse's spry and witty satire its abidingly human quality.

It did not suffer (as for example [Ken Kesey's] Cuckoo's Nest suffers) from a sneakily contemptuous tone in the writing or the acting…. [But] I was left uncertain of the nightmarish ending. Did Mr. Abse have trouble finishing it? (p. 57)