At the Plath play 'Edge'
by Paul Alexander
(both Plath scholar
and man of the theatre),
we endured a first hour
of the actress giving
colourful reasons for her
hating her too-much-loved Ted
and preparing to die
after the interval.
During the interval
we overheard
the two old ducks sitting behind:
"Oh dear, I didn't know
it was going to be so sad!
Do you think we should stay or go?
Shall I call a taxi?"
There was a futile fumbling
with a mobile phone.
They stayed.
In the second, shorter half,
Sylvia raged against Ted some more,
filled us in on his future
with Ass-ia Gut-man Weevil
(that's how she pronounced it)
and how much her books earned him,
acted out her gas oven death,
then rose for a farewell
quotation from 'Ariel'.
Oh we applauded, even
the old ducks sitting behind.
Max Richards
Athenaeum Theatre, Melbourne
(morning after)
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