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| Tony Major, Mel Winkler, Norman Bush, J. Herbert Kerr, Jr. |
Ed Bullins wrote In New
England Winter as the second in a projected 20-play cycle in which many of
the same characters would reappear. In
the Wine Time was the first in the series, and several others followed in
the 1970s, mainly Off-Off Broadway.
The subject of In New
England Winter is Steve Benson (Norman Bush), a young Black man, whose experiences
in two locales—a New England house in1955 and a city apartment in 1960—are recounted.
Both are set on stage at the same time. In the New England home, he is seen
having emotional difficulties with Liz (Gloria Edwards), the girl he loves, who
is verging on insanity. In the apartment, his problems are with Cliff (Mel
Winkler), his half-brother, with whom he plans a theft. Eventually, he winds up
leaving each place for good.
Critical disapproval was aimed largely at Bullins’s
nonlinear, rambling, loosely assembled style. A tape-recorded narration was
used to tie the threads together. As Walter Kerr noted, “he wants some form,
any form, a fusing principle that will gather up oddments.” To Edith Oliver,
the disconnected plotting was puzzling, but secondary to the deeply felt and
often poetic thrust of Bullins’s often profane dialogue. Black critic Clayton
Riley praised the writing, but lashed out at the mediocrity of the production.
Bullins, he wrote, “is a conjurer, Black musician-magician, a compelling weaver
of moods—composites of danger, menacing, murderous intuitions.” John Lahr was
similarly appreciative, albeit put off by “a sloppy, ill-conceived production.”
Bullins was awarded an OBIE for distinguished playwriting. Among the eight cast members was future SNL star Garrett Morris.