Love! Valour! Compassion!

     First off, I would like to say I really disliked this play. It was so hard to follow who was saying what and to whom. The cutaways to the audience during the action on stage was extremely confusing. I feel that I may have enjoyed it if I watched it, but as for reading it, that's a big NUH UH. 
     Had the historian read Love! Valour! Compassion! after reading The Glass of Water and The Children's Hour, he probably would have been pretty confused. The play didn't really follow any pattern at all. The ending was not even definite. It was more just like a glimpse into these eight men's tangled lives. I think one of the biggest differences between this play and the two we read prior to it is the fact that the fourth wall is broken repeatedly. Rather than creating a world that only the characters live in,  McNally opens it up to the audience's world as well. I believe he does this in order to show that one can relate to the characters in some way or another and also to show that this is real life for some people.
     As far as inferences about the culture of our time go, the historian would see a major change in the acceptability of homosexuality. In the play, a same-sex couple is celebrating their wedding anniversary. This never would have happened in the times of The Glass of Water and The Children's Hour. Also, capital-T Truth lies within each man within God as well. At one point, a character has an aside about God's unconditional love, a truth that all or at least most of the men seem to acknowledge. They each have their own individual beliefs and idea, and these are just as true in this world.
     I have tried to make as much sense as possible, though my thoughts about this play are still really jumbled. I hope this post is understandable; I tried my best.