In the first scene of Bosoms and Neglect, Henny, the blind, 82-year-old mother of a 40-year-old man who calls himself Scooper, hides behind a curtain and shows her son her cancerous breast which she has been treating with Kotex and St. Jude for the past two years. John Guare would do well to take that scene and burn it, interpolating what little exposition it contains into one of the speeches that follow. For this prologue hovers like the Vulture of Significance over the rest of the play, a false, pretentious, utterly unsatisfying scene that masks a beautiful, painful, and frequently hilarious show. Guare can be like that—brilliant fits after false starts and casual comedy collapsing into too-believable melodrama.

Bosoms and Neglect is an ill-made play. Its first act is a screwball comedy about two analysands, Deirdre and Scooper…. The second act takes place in Henny's hospital room...