"I'm hoping one day to prove that I can write a really good play. I don't think I've done that yet. One must just keep writing the best plays one possibly can"; this statement, made by Stephen Poliakoff in an interview in 1977 when he was twenty-five, is quoted by Oleg Kerensky in his The New British Drama (1977). By the most exacting critical standards, one would have to agree with this young dramatist's evaluation of his own work, but one would want immediately to point out that he has, nevertheless, already written several plays that show unusual promise and that already possess some solid theatrical virtues. To some extent his very early success must--as he himself has said--be attributed to luck: a series of happy accidents happened to ensure that his first plays, though produced in rather obscure circumstances, were brought forcibly to the attention of major critics, theater...