Robert Bolt [is] concerned fiercely with the problems of the individual and his social conscience…. [Flowering Cherry] proved to be the portrait of a failure, a study of futility, frustration, and self-deception (today a continuing theme).
Jim Cherry is an insurance agent. He is also an abject failure in life, a dreamer who uses his rhapsodies and reveries as a kingdom of escape…. Throughout [the play we observe] the affinity with Death of a Salesman. [At the denouement] there is a symbolic vision—it might be called Death of an Insurance Agent—when, as he sinks to the floor of his kitchen, blossoming trees rise suddenly all round him and we turn from harsh reality to the method of Miller and Kazan. Until this it has been an uncommon play, uncommon because the man, his wife who goes as far in loyalty as any woman could, and the son and daughter so critical of their parents, have clearly formed one household through the dismal years. Many stage families are assembled roughly and implausibly. We can believe in Bolt's, and it means a good deal to such a play as Flowering Cherry.
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