the play

well, it all depends on how much effort Wolfe put into the play. I don't find the idea that it could tell us something particular about particular characters absurd at all, but I suppose I will grant that the aggregate of relevance is a valid point. How minute does Wolfe want to make his extra-textual references? Some works require external context, such as a precursory understanding of the basic features of the saints or religious referents, and other works do not. This is all tied up with authorial construction and intent. If a tree falls in a Wolfe book and nobody notices, is the narrator really dead?