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The play divided audiences and critics. Some longtime observers of the theatre were shocked and appalled. But a few critics鈥攕pecifically Kenneth Tynan, who was then working at the New Yorker, and Jerry Talmer of The Village Voice鈥攃hampioned the piece, which went on to play 722 performances鈥攖he longest run to date for an Off-Broadway play that was not a revival. The play won a 1960 Obie Award and a Vernon Rice Award. In 1961, Shirley Clarke made it into a film, with Mr. Gelber providing a screen play.