A. R. Gurney's ["Children"] means to be about the childhood relationships that are never outgrown—those between siblings, those between child and parents. It is an excellent subject but Gurney has explored it only in an illustrative way and even then, he's wandered. This play spends most of its time dealing with another subject—one without the dramatic possibilities of childhood, one more bland: that subject is emotional repression among WASPs….

[The play's] house is meant to be a symbol of upper middle class WASP roots. It is being bequeathed by a widow to her grown children on the occasion of her imminent remarriage. That occasion is coincidental with the 4th of July weekend, though it is no coincidence. For their declarations of independence, or lack of it, are at stake this weekend.

The mother's independence is related to her remarriage; her son's is related to outgrowing jockhood...