In the following essay, Larson contends that Pomerance's play is a parable, informing the audience of truths they don't expect or even want to hear.

What is an elephant compared to a man?

Brecht, A Man's a Man

[T]he more we study Art, the less we care for Nature. What Art really reveals to us is Nature's lack of design, her curious crudities, her extraordinary monotony, her absolutely unfinished condition.... Art is our spirited protest, our gallant attempt to teach Nature her proper place. Wilde, "The Decay of Lying"

[Scripture says] that God is a hidden God, and that since the corruption of nature, He has left men in a darkness from which they can escape only through Jesus Christ.... Vere tu es Deus absconditus. Pascal, Pensees

In 1977 Foco Novo, a radical fringe group named after a play by Bernard Pomerance about South American guerrillas, first...