Setting

The setting of The Bald Soprano is so typically "English" as to be a reductio ad absurdum. The interior, the furnishings, the characters' dress and manners are all "English," at least in the sense of epitomizing a national stereotype The setting is the modern interior of a middle-class London couple's home, while the characters are a husband and wife who evidence those qualities attributed to the type, a sort of stoic stiffness and reserve and superficial cheeriness and civility.

The actual furnishings may be realistic enough, but the behavior of the Smiths and their visitors most certainly is not. Nor is the English clock, which, from the outset, indicates that the action within the seemingly real surroundings is to be distorted through the lens of a parodist.

Structure

Billed as an "anti-play," The Bald Soprano parodies the well-made problem play of the realistic tradition. Rather than develop on...