be of no avail

A celebrity-led campaign on behalf of the drama by the acclaimed author of “A Raisin in the Sun” would be of no avail: “The Sign” shuttered at Henry Miller’s Theatre on Jan. 10, 1965, after only 101 performances.

But it looks to be of no avail.

As a Washington Post reader named Walter A. Pinchback put it in a Letter to the Editor after Keys’s death: “At this moment, all Washington is wrought up about the crime situation here, and every good citizen is behind the movement to cleanse the city of the unlawful element, but it will be of no avail unless the people have faith and confidence in the enforcement officials.”

That sounds awfully grim—but as Seneca explained: “Do you bury friendship along with a friend? And why lament having lost him, if it be of no avail to have possessed him? Believe me, a great part of those we have loved, though chance has removed their persons, still abides with us. The past is ours, and there is nothing more secure for us than that which has been.”

It takes a very clever actress to explore those realms where cleverness will be of no avail.