All plays are social comment to one extent or another.
Good writers define reality; bad ones merely restate it.
There are a number of contemporary playwrights whom I admire enormously, but that's not at all the same thing as being influenced.
Creativity is magic. Don't examine it too closely.
The difference between critics and audiences is that one is a group of humans and one is not.
In rehearsals I get so completely wrapped up with the reality that's occurring on stage that by the time the play has opened I'm not usually quite as aware of the distinctions between what I'd intended and the result. There are many ways of getting the same result.