#2: Excerpt from GROUPINGS
(New York Times Theater Review, May 8, 1984.)

by Mel Gussow

"Bite the Hand" is the center play of a trio of one-acts in the second evening in the Ensemble Studio Theater's current festival. First on the bill is Shel Silverstein's one-joke "Remember Crazy Zelda?" Here is the joke: a dotty old lady recalls for her husband the guest list at an imaginary party 60 years in the past. At the party were, "Scotty, Zelda, Ernet, that bony blonde of Ernest's, you and I and Satie, and one more, Max...Max Perkins." Later, she adds, "And the bullfighter, Mano something."

As led by their director, Art Wolff, Jane Hoffman and Richard Woods keep the gossip frothy, but name-dropping is a limited comic device and the sketch lacks the nuttiness of Mr. Silverstein's "Lady or the Tiger," presented several seasons ago at the Ensemble Studio.

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