SOURCE: “The Boys in the Sand,” in New York, Vol. 31, No. 41, October 26, 1998, pp. 82-3.

In the following excerpt, Simon deems Impossible Marriage ditzy and uninteresting.

The program for Beth Henley's Impossible Marriage says, “The play is in three parts and is performed without intermission.” “Three parts,” something you might say about the division of Gaul, is grandiose nonsense: This 90-minute scribble is in three scenes. But Henley's playwriting career is in three parts. The first was fey and sort of likable; the second flaky and fairly exasperating. Now we are in the third, which is bananas. Totally.

Even the characters' names are ditsy. We are in the garden of a country house near Savannah owned by Kandall (not Kendall) Kingsley. Her daughter Floral (not Flora) looks to be about twelve months pregnant, and is married to the supposed philanderer Jonsey (pronounced Jonesy) Whitman, who keeps announcing how handsome...