SOURCE: Kramer, Mimi. “Double or Nothing.” New Yorker 65 (25 December 1989): 77-8, 80.

In the following review of the theatrical double-bill Oh, Hell, Kramer observes that both Silverstein's The Devil and Billy Markham and David Mamet's Bobby Gould in Hell explore man's moral nature through confrontations with the Devil.

After more than thirty years spent living as a woman among men, I find that nothing men have to say (or feel they have to do) about women ever surprises me. Which is probably why I got such a kick out of the Shel Silverstein/David Mamet double bill at the Lincoln Center Theatre. Silverstein's The Devil and Billy Markham and Mamet's “Bobby Gould in Hell”—they opened December 3rd under the blanket title “Oh, Hell”—both seek to explore man's moral nature, using the image of confrontation with the Devil. Both seem to suggest that an eternity in Hell is better...