A departure for Foote, bad behavior of 'Friends' is great theater
Characters behaving badly are the core of many playwrights' works - but not usually Horton Foote's. Oh, there may be the wastrel brother or cousin skulking at the edges. But in most of Foote's masterworks, from "The Trip to Bountiful" to "The Orphan's Home Cycle," the protagonists, for all their failings, are quietly struggling, essentially decent folk. One always felt Foote admired them and wanted us to do so as we…