The curse of John Arden is that he simply won't play ball. After creating a picture of Welfare State slovenliness in the farcical Live Like Pigs, he switched gears and gave us the spare and chilling Serjeant Musgrave's Dance. Then, all set for more thought-provoking austerity, he trots out The Happy Haven, a Commedia dell' Arte zanni on old age….

Along comes the much-heralded, long-awaited Workhouse Donkey and again Arden pulls a volte-face. The play turns out to be an ornery comedy of humours which is as opposed to quick sense as it is to pat conclusions, and the critics, now out of patience, smother it with indifference and cultivate their peevishness. (p. 238)

But putting to one side the reactions of our erudite … drama critics, let us (with full recognition of our biases) examine the virtues of John Arden's [The Workhouse Donkey].

—It is intelligent. There is a...