THE STORY: SOCIABILITY. Fanny and Frank receive their callers, Milly and Jack, and the banter begins—always with a smile, always with the bumptious tone of good friends getting together. The friendly mood doesn’t change, but the conversation does, touching on who has two cars, the biggest raise in salary, the most expensive clothes, until a chilling dislike becomes palpable behind the frozen smiles. Ultimately the visitors rip the clothes off the backs of their hosts and wreck their living room. They are sent packing, but soon are back again, to be greeted with the usual mock-heartiness—and so the game goes on.
A delightful and acerbic comedy in the avant garde mode, which pokes devastating fun at the hypocritical pretense which can be so much a part of doing and saying the “right thing."
Included in the collection
The Last Straw and Sociability.
