There is no difficulty of judgment where [a] lack of talent is transparent. Trouble arises when a piece reveals some flair yet settles for facile, complacent strokes of theatre.

Such a play is Arthur Kopit's "Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet, and I'm Feelin' So Sad." The very title proclaims the author's shrewdness at attracting attention. But his cleverness goes beyond the invention of a provocative label.

Young Mr. Kopit has an affinity for the bizarre and can translate it into theatrical terms…. He has written several laconic scenes in which the non-sequiturs so familiar in the theatre of the absurd are turned to amusing account….

Mr. Kopit's play has its share of irrelevancies that fall into no pattern of communication. He seems to be concerned with the depredations of the eternal smothering female. Is he laughing to heighten the anguish? Or is he...