Every now and then an innovative play will come along and astound the theatre world. Sometimes the play will triumph for pleasant or ghastly reasons, but only a chosen few will be earmarked as an immortal classic. The plays that end up being classic are plays that frequently focus on a universal and ageless topic that will help this play attain the enduring excellence that qualifies it as a landmark masterpiece. One such work is the 1935 play, "Waiting for Lefty," by playwright Clifford Odets.
             In "Waiting for Lefty," Clifford Odets tells the story of a taxicab strike in 1934. Odets wrote the play in three days in a hotel room. The taxi strike had enormous political consequences for America in 1935. America was recovering from the Great Depression and everyone was suffering. The farmers were suffering and starving but it was the working man, the common man, the taxi driver who was crippled the most as unemployment rose in New York City. Working for less than what they were worth, the taxicab drivers went on strike.
             Although the play is set after the Great Depression in 1935, the play does more than deal with the plight of taxicab workers. Clifford Odets uses his mastery of dramatic elements to make the play universal. He brilliantly uses the following, the use of dramatic elements, the use of agitprop, dialogue, symbolism and characterization, time, and location. Furthermore, he uses an existing social problem of a strike as a background for the development of the plays major themes: those who have and those who do not have, the corruption of big business, proletariat vernacular, breaking down of theatrical boundaries. and the struggle for human dignity, especially for the common man in our society.
             Throughout the play, the central focus is constantly reiterated. The play's major conflict between those who have and those who do not have is introduced early on in the Joe and Edna scene. Joe has just come home to find out...