Whether one likes or dislikes N. F. Simpson's work, it seems to me, there is very little to be said about it. It is uniquely all of a piece, all written in pretty well the same style, and all based on one principle, the non sequitur. This seems to link it with the Theatre of the Absurd (especially if we take au grand sérieux the pronouncement of the author-character in the first version of A Resounding Tinkle that 'The retreat from reason means precious little to anyone who has never caught up with reason in the first place; it takes a trained mind to relish a non sequitur'), but it also links it with such humbler native prototypes as Itma and The Goon Show, even without dragging in Lewis Carroll and the English nonsense tradition. And it is with Itma that Simpson's plays seem happiest; certainly...