Criticism > Drama Criticism > Delicate Balance, A - Critical Commentary

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CRITICAL COMMENTARY

Michael E. Rutenberg (essay date 1969)

SOURCE: "A Delicate Balance," in Edward Albee: Playwright in Protest, DBS Publications, Inc., 1969, pp. 137-64.

[In the essay below, Rutenberg maintains that A Delicate Balance is the "culmination" of the "mom and pop relationship, " a recurring theme in Albee's work.]

Notwithstanding the fact that Edward Albee received the Pulitzer Prize for A Delicate Balance, it still remains, aside from Tiny Alice, his most underrated play. Premiered on September 12, 1966, at the Martin Beck Theatre, its generally mild reception generated immediate controversy over Albee's continuing talent as a first-rate playwright. Martin Gottfried, reviewing for Women's Wear Daily, called the play "two hours of self-indulgence by a self-conscious and self-overrating writer."¹ Robert Brustein, now Dean of the revitalized Yale School of...

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2. Critical Reception
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4. Critical Commentary
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