mysterious circumstances. A powerful build-up of ten-

cion leads to the final revelati on a concent rated dose of homosexual prostitution, violence, mutilation and cannibalism that is guaranteed to chill.

Whether or not the offended critic of the "New Republic" overheard his neighbors correctly we do not know, though it seems at least doubtful if they whispered, as he suggests in his peculiar way. There may, at any rate, be some value in a more reliable report of a (woman) homosexual's reaction to Tennessee William's production.

It goes without saying that she appreciates his unfailing artistry, and too, his boldness in again exploring for playgoers the realm of the illicit and the bizarre. There need be, and should be, no limits to the artist's concern with humanity in all its aspects...........

Beyond that, she, like most of the audience, is repelled by the ugliness and horror in the se plays. What is most repulsive is the theme itself which is, of course, not the deviant but the predatory. She does not maintain that Williams is "dealing with the perfectly normal". On the contrary, he is dealing with several varieties of the abnormal, no matter how that may be defined. But sho knows (as how many still do not know?) that the doviant need not be the predatory. And she feels that th "most" abnormal aspect of Williams' work, in any sense deeper than the purely statistical, is not the deviant sexual relationships but the quality of the relati onships.

She knows, finally, that the human, supporting kind of love which Tennessee Williams cannot quite believe in, does exist in her own world that the world is not inhabited exclusively, as is Tennessee Williams', by Cornelia Scotts and Violet Venable s.

Florence Conrad

NOTE: If you live in or near San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York or Providence, R.I., you can join the DOB. Contact San Francisco headquarters for informati on.