The Countess hides behind caricature to better obtain her ends. But all her moods give her a roundness that sometimes shock, amuse, or at times irritate. A cycle of five plays that have been described as ahead of their time.
Who is this woman I've called the Countess? Her origins are obscure but real. Fiction can be more convincing than life. The Countess has another dimension I recognize as the tangible self, far more interesting than a journal or an essay or a speech on abuses and how to correct them. This woman called the Countess is a caricature you say? I say she hides behind caricature to better obtain her ends; she fools others, and often herself, but she uses her wit like one adept in karate; she uses her many disguises not to hide from men, but to give her a vantage point where she has the leisure to study them before acting. But all of her many moods simply give her a roundness that sometimes shocks me, or amuses me, or at times . . . irritates me.
Daniel Sloate