John Guare is a bright young playwright with a rare sense of the theatre, of words, and of the modern pop sensibility. Like too many talented new playwrights, though, he has been prematurely thrown into the spotlight, and like the raw vaudevillian in that old art routine, he tap dances frightenedly because he is expected to. Mr. Guare had not had the benefit of experience, discipline or knowing guidance, and his "Cop-Out" is an unrealized idea….

In "Cop-Out," which is two one-act plays, Guare has tried to bring to the theatre the post-pop-art sense that has so vitalized current art and music. In thinking, that puts him out front and around the corner from what is currently passing for modern theatre. Unfortunately, he is not quite sure how to do that and often as not confuses that sense with older forms such as camp, satire, nostalgia and mock-sentimentality. Besides, his craftsmanship is careless and so the plays are built on several minor (or sketch) structures instead of as units. The result is bright ideas gone listless.