SOURCE: Chirico, Miriam M. “Female Laughter and Comic Possibilities: Uncommon Women and Others.” In Modern Dramatists: A Casebook of Major British, Irish, and American Playwrights, edited by Kimball King, pp. 339-59. New York: Routledge, 2001.

In the following essay, Chirico examines the traditional comic structure, characters, and spirit of Uncommon Women and Others, arguing that the formal features of comedy suit the play's feminist perspective on women's place in patriarchal society.

But when I grew weary or disgruntled—I too, like Emily Dickinson, tired of the world and sometimes found it lacking—the gentler joys of tea, sherry, and conversation with women friends—and I've made many good ones here—have always been for me a genuine pleasure.

Mrs. Plumm

It was all hypothetical.

Kate

For Wendy Wasserstein, comedy is a way of concretizing hypothetical scenarios: “Sometimes funny things are almost like the fantasy, and then it comes real...