“‘Waiting for Lefty’ stirs up more and more anger at the big corruptions that are destroying the average American’s life.”

Waiting for Lefty, Clifford Odets’ first play to be produced (by the Group Theater in 1935), is a political and social statement supporting the workers’ struggle against “fat cat” corporate power and class and ethnic prejudice. In the right hands, it’s still a powerful piece.

Students in my Introduction to the Theater were required to attend a live play of their choice and write a review that described and assessed both the play and the production.

What we have here is a sentence from an otherwise-fine student review. Whether we should chalk up “big corruptions” to Autocorrect or Freud I cannot say. Perhaps my student just can’t tell the difference between corporations and corruption.

Hmmm.…