SOURCE: "Various Ways to Lose Your Head," in New York Magazine, Vol. 14, No. 9, 2 March 1981, pp. 52-3.

In the following harshly negative review of the Off-Broadway production of Still Life, Simon describes Mann as "pretentious" and calls the main characters "stupid, crazy, odious, and boring."

In Still Life, Emily Mann, who wrote and directed, places three people on a platform at a speakers' table. There is Mark, a Vietnam veteran, who seems to be excessively controlled, self-accusing, and at home with his misery; Cheryl, his wife and mother of their small son, who seems insane enough—though calmly, ever so calmly—to be put away; and Nadine, a somewhat older woman—unhappy wife, mother of three girls, photographer, feminist, and Mark's current lover. Mark, apparently, is a photographer too, but he also runs some sort of store; he seems to be separated from Cheryl, though also somehow living with...