In this collection of thirteen very short plays, Ferlinghetti extends the experiments he began in Unfair Arguments with Existence (1963) into an area barely explored by any dramatist to date––a no man’s land between old-style drama and the spontaneous improvisation of the “happening.’ In between these two extremes, he has created blueprints for dramatic action––outlines from which director and actors may create and interpret freely. There has been much talk lately (in quarterlies such as Studies on the Left) about “revolutionary theatre,” and these “Routines” are a certain step in that direction. In Unfair Arguments with Existence, Ferlinghetti hoped that “feeling around on the frontiers of theatre, we may yet possibly discover some ’seeking action’ in life itself.” In Routines he conceives of theatre as a search for revolutionary solutions, with the audience itself made of good and bad actors “acting out aspirations to some ideal existence.”