Hanging Specters

"The word 'Africa' is not uttered until deep in the second act of Hurt Village, but the continent hangs like a specter over Katori Hall's new play at the Signature Center. The African-American Memphis ghetto that gives the work its title is, if anything, a satellite colony, where the inhabitants have formed their own warring tribes and are united by customs and music the outside world simply cannot understand."
-Matthew Murray's review at Talkin' Broadway

This kind of deep insight into a work's dramatic heritage opens up whole new vistas of critical consideration that hadn't even occurred to me. Like:

"The word 'Israel' is not uttered at all in Glengarry Glen Ross, but that long-contested homeland hangs like a specter over David Mamet's play. The real estate office where aging salesman Shelley Levene struggles to survive is, if anything, a battleground where land takes on symbolic, even spiritual value in ways the outside the world simply cannot understand."

or

"The word 'Ireland' is not uttered at all in The House of Blue Leaves, but that mythic isle hangs like a specter over John Guare's play. The Queens suburb where the Shaughnessys play out their dangerously dysfunctional marriage, against a backdrop of Catholic shame and a terrorist bombing, is, if anything, a satellite of old Erin, a land of absurd poetry and deep-seated conflict the outside world simply cannot understand."

It's almost like every playwright's ancestral country of origin provides a readymade cultural/dramatic template with which to view their work.

Mind accordingly blown.

Play at home!