Brenton is, if not resentful, at least rather puzzled at the recurrent comparison of his dramatic method to that of a strip cartoon, since he disclaims any particular interest in strip cartoons or any conscious influence. All the same, the comparison is irresistible. Psychology and explanation are ruthlessly suppressed, dialogue is reduced to the skeleton indications of a cartoon's bubbles, the action of his plays proceeds from image to image with virtually no transitions, no gradations. (p. 217)

[Christie in Love (1969) is] a perfect case in point. The action is a sort of Chinese box: on the outside is almost a literal box, a compound of chicken wire scattered with rubbish in which Christie's victims wait to be dug up by the police and in which Christie himself is finally buried. Inside this burial-ground box is another box, that of Christie's interrogation by the police. And in that is...