THE STORY: As outlined by Martin Gottfried, “It is written in the form of a dramatic inquest. Ben, a playwright and an original person, has come home to somewhere in the Deep South to bury his cousin Bert. He has also come to place the guilt for the suicide on the shoulders of Bert’s parents, his wife, his circumstances. The interweaving flashbacks show guilt enough. Bert’s parents were narrow-minded, dominating people, very much responsible for their son’s virtual impotence. More believably, his wife’s prudery murdered whatever physical love might have been possible between them ('He waited for me and I waited for him'). The play’s treatment of this subject alone—the relationship between marriage, love and sex—is so wisely conceived that I think it in itself worth the work. But there is much more. In gliding and flowing through a lifetime, with incidents of family, marriage and discovery of sex through a wonderfully physical prostitute, TO BURY A COUSIN weaves through a dramatic collage of delicate intensity. And Mr. Weill’s use of naturalistic scenes in open-time sequence is proof enough that dramatic realism can be applied in modern ways. The writing is lovely, sometimes even exquisite."
This sensitive and affecting drama employs a highly imaginative “flashback” technique to probe into the circumstances, the places and people, that have a bearing on a life that has been led—and ended—in poignant failure.
“Gus Weill is a true writer—easy and poetic, natural and confident—and he knows what a play is supposed to be, how a stage can work.” —Women’s Wear Daily.
“…forceful and dynamic, with flashes of humor…” —WNBC-TV.
“…a probing penetrating drama that cries out to be seen…” —WABC-TV.
