I listened to somebody once describe late-night television as a place where great comedians go to die, in that the form demands a lot of time and energy from the best and brightest, but ultimately doesn’t leave behind anything of lasting cultural value. Any of these people could have been a mainstay in movies, television, or stand-up, but they were caught and their talents won’t be appreciated by later generations.

That’s how I feel about Bill Manhoff the author of The Owl and the Pussycat who doesn’t have any other plays to his name, but did go on to write many episodes of sitcoms, which may have been great, but not even I am buying old sitcom scripts from the internet, and I’m crazy enough to buy old plays.

The Owl and the Pussycat premiered 1965, the same year as The Odd Couple* and it has a similar blueprint: two unlikely roommates, quarrel, then find solace with each other. Unlike The Odd Couple, The Owl and the Pussycat is romantic and much more depressing (though no less funny,) where the main couple gives up their dreams for something more realistic (much like Bill Manhoff)

The entire play takes place in one apartment, where Felix (hey, there’s another Odd Couple connection,) is woken up by the violent knocking of Doris, a woman who was turning tricks which caught Felix’s ire and he had her kicked out of her apartment. She is here to take up residency until she gets back on her feet.

While grousing about the situation from both sides, a certain amount of mean words, and a little bit of seduction are to be expected in this set-up, what sets this play apart (And makes it, at least so far, one of the more interesting plays I’ve read this year,) is that the actual theme of this play is self-delusion; the need for an individual to lie to themselves in order to get through the day.

This is most evident with Doris, who insists that she’s a model and actress, and that not only is the sex work something she does on the side to get by, but that any other form of work i s not for her, but over the course of the show we’re introduced to Felix’s self-delusion: that he’s a strong writer, has something interesting to say, smarter than the folks around him, and we eventually learn that he even changed his name (something which he mocked Doris for earlier) from the pedestrian Fred Sherman in order to sound more unique.

In the middle of the second act Felix presages sapiosexuality by convincing himself (and Doris) that his sexual attraction to her isn’t physical, couldn’t be (He’s not like that,) but instead he must be attracted to her mind, and that she thus must be a secret intellectual that only he can see, this is a short episode in the play, but a memorable one.

As the play moves from Odd Couple into the Lockhorns through Pygmalion and finally the closing act of Barefoot in the Park the mental armor each character’s built to keep them safe falls away and when they are able to see they are not who they want to be (and it’s implied, lack the ability to become that person,) that they can attempt a relationship as equals.

*The Odd Couple premiered in March of 1965, while this play premiered in November, so while it is possible that this play was a direct response to Odd Couple, given the long development time of theater I imagine it’s origin predated OC.