I always thought the following anecdote from Clifford Odets’ 1940 journal was hysterical, and also thought-provoking. <\/p>\n
Entry from Journal<\/i><\/p>\n April 17, 1940<\/i><\/p>\n In the early evening went to Lee Strasberg’s house for dinner. Paula’s mother was there, preparing the dinner, and I understood a great deal about Paula from seeing her mother’s weak face. For the first time in ten years the tensions are down between Lee and myself — so we were both able to relax.<\/p>\n He spoke of what he called “the blight of Ibsen”, saying that Ibsen had taught most writers after him how to think undramatically. He illustrated this by an example. A man has been used to living in luxury finds he is broke and unable to face life — he goes home and puts a bullet in his head. That, Lee said, any fair theatre person can lay out into a play. But it is not essentially a dramatic view of life. Chekhov is dramatic, he said, for this is how he treats related material: a man earns<\/i> a million rubles and goes home and lies down on them and puts a bullet in his head.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Ha!!<\/p>\n \n