A Play Is a Poem

If the audience laughs, it’s a comedy. If they nod with new understanding, it’s a drama. If they laugh and nod but can’t say why it’s funny or what they’ve understood, it might be A Play Is a Poem, the new collection of one-acts by Ethan Coen. The hillbilly hollows of Appalachia, the executive suites of Hollywood, a New York tenement apartment, a magnolia-scented gazebo in Natchez, Mississippi — an eccentric look at life across America.