‘The Creation of the World and Other Business’ and ‘Playing for Time’

Abstract

The Creation of the World and Other Business, which had a brief and unprofitable run in New York in 1972, is an interesting and complex play that deserves a chance to find an audience away from the intense financial pressures of Broadway. One cause of the perplexity which greeted this work is its unusual form and subject-matter. Having come to think of Miller as a realist, audiences were ill-prepared for the blend of whimsy and theology in this play reminiscent of medieval drama but of little since that time. In spite of its apparently novel form, however, Creation is closely related to Miller’s other work. In this play the dramatist continues his exploration of the themes of free will, violence and responsibility with which he has been concerned since After the Fall and Incident at Vichy. It is, he says, ‘the clearest expression of his religious beliefs that he’s come to’.⁴²