Until I went to see Children … I had no idea how conditioned I had become to modern play-writing. During the first couple of scenes four characters appeared: a Mother, her daughter, her son and the son's wife. Their relationships were made quite clear and they conversed about a straightforward situation … in a realistic setting…. Then the Mother suddenly made a remark about erosion: in time, she said, the garden and then the house would slide into the sea.

'Aha!' I thought to myself. 'I've got it! These are not real people at all, nor is that a real house. This is a Symbolic Play, and the people and the house represent the Condition of Presentday America.' But the play continued, the characters went on behaving like real people, and the subject of erosion was not brought up again. Shortly the conversation turned towards Sex…. 'Aha!'...