[Reunion] consists of two wretched curtain raisers of about 10 minutes apiece, which finally raise the (figurative) curtain on a 45-minute play that, though appreciably better, is still nothing on which a curtain especially needs to rise. In The Sanctity of Marriage, a few feeble comments on the evanescence of conjugal love are implied; it is all rather as if a couple of pages from a mediocre but full-length play were ripped out and served up as an autonomous and astonishing whole. The only astonishing thing here is the impudence.

Dark Pony is a children's play…. The eponymous pony turns out otherwise than expected. That might be enough for a postprandial joke, but it is lean fare for a play, particularly given the flavorless language.

Finally, Reunion concerns an unhappily married daughter's seeking out her feckless and lonely father…. They have little to give beyond frequently disconcerting platitudes, but keep staggering toward a relationship. This could be touching—if only Mamet had more insight into heads and hearts instead of merely gluing his ears in arrested development to people's mouths.

Mamet, moreover, instead of building on [his] aptitude [for capturing speech patterns accurately], has pared away at it. He began by at least placing his characters in somewhat unusual or piquant situations before all that leveling literalness set in; now he surrounds them with an ordinariness they drown in among cries for help that are no more pungent, idiosyncratic, or perceptive than "Help!" (pp. 87-8)