Prisoner is the story of Mel and Edna Edison, a typical husband and wife from the 1970s. Mel loses his job and eventually has a mental breakdown due to his feeling useless. Edna then goes back to work to support them, making Mel feel even worse about the entire situation. The play has a happy ending, but the moral of the story is that the pressures of being in the rat race can eventually drive you nuts (and we see this as Edna starts resembling Mel just before his breakdown at the end of the play). 

The play is beautifully crafted and contains many lines that ring true even today. Although the play is mostly about the two main characters we get a glimpse at Mel's quirky siblings who add immensely to the overall tone of the play. 
 

A small-time stockholder brings a company to its knees when she exposes the board of directors as the selfish, greedy group they are in this light-hearted comedy. 

"The Solid Gold Cadillac" offers an hilarious satire of big business and big businessmen. A young woman -- who's just a minority stockholder with 10 shares of stock -- brings the stuffy, arrogant execs of a large corporation to their knees.

To stop her constant complaints and protests, members of the board set Laura Partridge up in her own office with the puffed-up position of "shareholder relations." But this cushy job doesn't satisfy the conscientious Miss Partridge; instead, the feisty newcomer to the business world decides to reform the corrupt board of directors... with the help of some unlikely supporters.
 

Dearly Departed is a play about Happy Families in the American Deep South, and begins with the demise of one Bud, officially from a stroke but more probably from the terror induced by a letter from his born-again Christian sister declaring her intention of descending on them to spend an afternoon praying and leading them back to the Lord. "One day with the Lord is as a thousand years" she reminds Bud, who immediately opts for the thousand years rather than a visit from his Bible-bashing sister. 

This simple plot device sets the scene for a gathering of the clan, where all the clichés of character types below the Mason-Dixon line are exploited, sometimes to hilarious effect. 

We have the inarticulate gum-chewing teenager, the ne'er-do-well son of the religious fanatic, the faithless husband and failed businessman with his shrewish wife, the toothy preacher - in short, it's just like Tennessee Williams sending himself up. 

The play is an endearing little piece of nonsense which takes the Southern myths and exposes them to the cold light of reality. The consolation of religion, community spirit, loving families, speaking well of the dead, the Christian charity - they all get a beating, and although the play doesn't say anything new about the serpents that lurk in every Eden, it says it wittily and well.