["Balloon"] is a four act comedy in prose. The jacket says "it is the first play to be based on modern philosophical ideas. The action takes place in a 'Spenglerian' world in which life has become externalized and where the idea of height and distance is dominant." Perhaps that is the matter with it. Or perhaps that is the matter with me. I have only the haziest notion of what a "Spenglerian" world is, and the ideas of height and distance become dominant in my life only when I climb a mountain….

Caspar, the hero of "Balloon," invites people to take a peep at the moon through his telescope outside the Hotel Daedalus, the glittering skyscraper pile where the sophisticated of the world gather…. Along comes the architect of the hotel, world weary, and pays Caspar a large sum for his telescope, so off goes Caspar into the...