Edward Albee

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How and why does Albee break the 'fourth wall' in The Sandbox?

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Albee breaks the "fourth wall" in "The Sandbox" to emphasize the play's theatricality and absurdity. Characters like Grandma directly address the audience and refer to theatrical elements, highlighting the play as a constructed performance. This technique underscores the absurdity of human existence and relationships, particularly around death. The use of generic names and absurd situations further accentuates this theme, drawing attention to the play's artificiality and the emptiness of familial affection.

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In The Sandbox: A Brief Play, in Memory of My Grandmother (1876–1959), playwright Edward Albee repeatedly draws attention to the play as a play, not only by breaking through "the fourth wall" (with characters speaking directly to the audience) but also by making reference to the theatrical elements of the play as it's being performed.

The situation of the play is absurd: a Young Man does calisthenics on the beach while he waits for family members Mommy and Daddy to bring their dying Grandma to him.

The Young Man exercises only his arms. Unless the audience has read Albee's stage notes, they won't know why the Young Man exercises only his arms. Albee explains the seeming absurdity in his notes:

These calisthenics, employing the arms only, should suggest the beating and fluttering of wings. The Young Man is, after all, the Angel of Death.

Mommy and Daddy bring their...

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Grandma to the beach and unceremoniously dump her in a sandbox. A sandbox at the beach seems entirely out of place and absurd; it draws attention to itself.

The fact that the characters in the play are simply called "Mommy" or "Daddy" might also seem absurd, if for no other reason than that we expect characters to have names. Other playwrights typically name their characters.

These names ["Mommy" and "Daddy"] are of empty affection and point up the pre-senility and vacuity of their characters.

In real life, however, many people refer to other members of their family by their relationship to them—"Mommy," "Daddy," "Grandma," and so on. In this instance, Albee simply chooses not to provide "proper" names for the characters in the play, which draws attention to the play as a play.

It's odd, too, maybe even absurd, that the Young Man doesn't know his name.

GRANDMA: ...What’s your name, honey?

YOUNG MAN: I don’t know…I mean…I mean, they haven’t given me one yet…the studio…

Since the Young Man is the Angel of Death, the allusion to a movie studio is perhaps symbolic of God's administrative team, which simply hasn't gotten around to giving the Young Man a name—or perhaps has decided that he didn't need one.

Grandma is the only character who breaks the "fourth wall" by speaking directly to the audience. Grandma also appears to be acting for the audience throughout the play.

Grandma makes direct reference to other theatrical elements of the play. She speaks directly to the Musician, for example, and to the person who controls the stage lighting.

GRANDMA: (She looks up at the sky, shouts to someone off stage) Shouldn’t it be getting dark now, dear? (the lights dim; night comes on. The musician begins to play; it becomes deepest night. There are spotlights on all the players, including the Young Man, who is, of course, continuing his calisthenics.)

The spotlights clearly call attention to the fact that the audience is watching a play.

Mommy, too, refers to staging elements when she talks to Daddy about the offstage "rumbling."

DADDY: (starting) What was that?

MOMMY: (beginning to weep) It was nothing.

DADDY: It was….it was…thunder…or a wave breaking…or something.

MOMMY: (whispering, through her tears) It was an off-stage rumble…and you know what that means.

All in all, these anti-realistic intrusions into the play are designed to draw attention to the play as a play, to the absurdity of the play, and to the absurdity of human existence and how some people relate to the death of supposed "loved ones."

The title of the play, The Sandbox: A Brief Play, in Memory of My Grandmother (1876–1959), might also give some insight into the meaning of the play. Albee was given up for adoption by his birth parents, and the "Grandmother" to whom he refers in the title of his play is his adoptive grandmother. He never knew his real grandmother and didn't have an opportunity to mourn her death.

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