Although The Mound Builders is Wilson's favorite of his plays, it has not been the favorite of critics. For the most part, it is fair to say that the play has been more widely admired by those who have read it and studied it as a text than by those who have seen it performed. Both groups agree that the play is complicated and literary, even "opaque"—just the type of play that is often more rewarding to readers, who can pause and retrace their steps to confirm connections. And most critics who have studied Wilson's career have found that Wilson did not hit his stride and produce fine, mature work until the Talley family plays a few years after The Mound Builders.

When the play opened off-Broadway in 1975, Wilson and the Circle Repertory were already important enough to draw the attention of New York's...