Albee, Edward (Vol. 3) | Albee, Edward 1928–
Albee, Edward 1928–
Albee is one of America's foremost dramatists. Although his work is often compared to that of Ionesco, Pinter, Genet, Camus, and Beckett, his plays are unique in their fusion of comedy and terror. A master of stage speech, Albee won the Pulitzer Prize for "A Delicate Balance." (See also Contemporary Authors, Vols. 5-8, rev. ed.)
The trouble with Albee's acutely original play, The American Dream, is that its bizarre Ionesco details don't add up to an experience. This one-hour work has almost everything that fancy can supply but hardly anything that experience can validate. The details, either irrational or so logical as to be extravagant, are amusing as they come at the playgoer with a suddenness and a barrage of nonsequiturs rarely encountered in "real-life" situations. For a dozen minutes or so, the humor keeps the play crackling. Mr. Albee's oblique treatment of the banal tedium of domestic life recalls Ionesco's...
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