It is characteristic of Simon Gray to place a witty, intellectual hero center stage, and then systematically and ruthlessly reveal the barrenness of his soul and spirit. In CLOSE OF PLAY (the title is a cricket term) the central figure is Jasper Spencer, a celebrated literary figure and family patriarch, who sits mutely on stage while his children and their spouses, one by one, reveal their innermost concerns and problems to him. One son, a BBC television newscaster with a drinking problem, suspects that his wife is unfaithful and may leave him; another son, a doctor facing a malpractice suit, feigns devotion to his often-betrayed wife, who is pregnant with their fifth child; while the widow of a third brother, who hates everyone in sight, tries to develop a meaningful relationship with her troubled son, who is suspected of homosexuality and theft. While the stories they tell are absorbing, lively, and filled with humor, they are also, on a deeper level, uncommonly revealing—giving eloquent testimony of the profound unhappiness that underlies this ostensibly content and even placid household.