Appearances are important to Tobias Harte. He wants to do the right thing, and he wants his wife and children to do the right thing. He is at the center of his world, and shows little interest in his children or his wife. His son is a college dropout, and his seventeen-year-old daughter wants to study drama instead of something more conventional. Tobias's wife tries to keep everyone happy. Tobias works for a prestigious research institute, and is on the verge of being named its director. Just as he's poised to reach the pinnacle of his career, his personal life starts spinning out of control.

I wasn't expecting this to be a comedy. It's a satire of the upper middle class social structure. Oates uses black humor to make her point. Oates' subject matter seems to have been ahead of her time. This play premiered nearly a quarter century ago, but it could have been ripped from today's headlines about sexual assault on college campuses. Tobias's son, Jason, confesses to his father that he might have raped a woman. Tobias goes to see her to hear her side of the story and ends up as infatuated with her as his son was. His conversations with her cause him to see himself and his ambitions from a new perspective.

Oates seems to have written herself into a box that she can't manage to get out of. Maybe she found it more difficult to wrap up a comedy than to end a tragedy. Half of the cast in this live recording didn't sound natural. Barbara Bosson as Tobias's wife, Paula, and David Schwimmer as his son, Jason, nailed their roles. ( )