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Remembering Edward Albee: 5 Plays to Read Now
Last September, Edward Albee passed away at the age of 88. Among the last great major American playwrights of the 20th century, he won three Pulitzer Prizes for his dramas, which often dealt with the falsities of modern life and the lies we all tell ourselves to get by. Okay, that sounds pretty bleak. And sure, while his plays often ended with relationships in shambles, they were also really funny, and as he got older and evolved as a writer, they became quite strange. At any rate, his plays don’t have to be seen to be enjoyed—here are some eminently readable works by the late, great Edward Albee.
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1962)
Before there was “comedy of discomfort” as exemplified by Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Office, there was drama of the discomfort. And Albee’s smash hit from 1962 is about as uncomfortable as it gets. Think of every dinner party you’ve ever been to when the hosts start passive-aggressively (or aggressively) sniping at each other as the booze begins to flow. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? depicts that kind of an evening, as professor George and his wife Martha invite a young colleague and his wife over for dinner. As the night wears on, George and Martha’s marriage disintegrates as they inappropriately flirt with their guests, drink way too much, and flat out tell each other that they’ve ruined each other’s lives. (Elizabeth Taylor won an Oscar for her masterful portrayal of Martha in the 1966 film version.)
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A Delicate Balance (1966)
That title? A bit of a spoiler. Albee won his first Pulitzer Prize for another up-close-and-personal criticisms of marriage and traditional family structures. A study in contrasts, a well-to-do couple named Tobias and Agnes (along with Agnes’s perpetually drunk and funny sister Claire) find their lives invaded by intruders: their friends Harry and Edna, escaping some kind of horrible thing that remains unnamed. (Is it the future? Yeah, it’s probably the future.) Along for the invasion of privacy and sanity is Agnes and Tobias’s daughter, seeking refuge after her fourth divorce.
Seascape (1975)
Seascape features something one doesn’t usually find in the legitimate theater: sea creatures. However, it’s an Edward Albee play, so that’s offset by lots of insight about relationships. Once again, Albee examines a marriage in disarray: Nancy and Charles are at retirement age and take a trip to the beach to discuss their uneasy journey forward. And then they’re joined by two humanoid lizards who crawled out of the ocean because they were also seeking a change. (Albee took home another Pulitzer for this one.)
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Three Tall Women (1991)
While Albee generally wrote in a linear, realistic style, Three Tall Women offers a shift to a more experimental, even expressionistic style. It’s the surreal story of “A,” a 90-year-old woman reflecting on her life and choices before Alzheimer’s ravages her memory. Her caretaker is “B,” who is A at 52-years-old. The other major character is “C,” who is “A” and “B” and age 26 and is in A’s room on behalf of A’s attorney so she can sign some paperwork. While a lovely narrative does unfold, Three Tall Women reads more like poetry than a play script.
The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? (2000)
This pitch-black comedy is about a stately, upper-middle-class family whose liberal politics are pushed to the limits when Martin decides to leave his wife Stevie for his lover…a goat named Sylvia. It’s easily the only play about a man who marries a goat to ever win the Tony Award for Best Play or be named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for drama.
What is your favorite play by Edward Albee?