SOURCE: "The Broken Lights of Irish Myth," in Irish Literary Supplement, Fall, 1995, p. 18.

In the following review. Tracy praises Banville's adaptation of Heinrich von Kleist's The Broken Jug as "funnier and grimmer" than the original.

Der Zerbrochene Krug/The Broken Jug (1807), by Heinrich von Kleist, is a renowned classic of German drama, which means that, like Goethe's Faust or Schiller's Die Räuber, it is virtually unknown to the English-speaking playgoer. John Banville's lively adaptation employs a subtly colloquial verse line, and transfers the action from the Netherlands in 1700 to "Ballybog … in the West of Ireland, in August, 1846," making the play accessible at least to Irish playgoers.

As adapted by Banville and directed by Ben Barnes at the Peacock Theatre, The Broken Jug is in many respects a version of the German original. But Banville has also localized—Hibernicized—the play, making it at once funnier and grimmer...