The Creation of the World and Other Business

Dividing his play into "three questions on the human dilemma," the author begins with a charming and gently humorous retelling of Adam and Eve (and God) in the Garden of Eden. After their expulsion from paradise, Eve gives birth to Cain, watched over by a scheming Lucifer—who seeks to share the power of a God now angered by the errant ways of his creations. In the concluding portion of the play, with mounting dramatic intensity, Cain kills his brother, Abel, and is sent out as a wanderer, as the final dilemma is explored: "When every man wants justice, why does he go on creating injustice?" Throughout the action, which alternates scenes of sprightly humor with absorbing confrontations between God and Lucifer and God and his fallible creations, the striking pertinence of the play becomes ever more clear. It is a parable for our time, and all time, rich with philosophic insights and alive with vivid theatricality.