( 5 reviews )
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Posted: Feb 16 2008
I've just read Zoo Story, one of the highly acclaimed plays in this book. I'd like my time refunded, please.
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( 0 of 1 found this review helpful ) Posted: Jul 13 2007
When you read a play like "The Man Who Had three Arms" after "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," you can begin to see how absurd it is to rate and compare playwrights, even when one is trying to compare the plays of a single playwright. Is the man who wrote the former the same guy who wrote the latter? Where did the playwright who wrote such zesty dialog as in the banter between Martha and George, go? Where is the electricity, not to the mention the theatricality? The playwright of 1961 is same not the same guy as the playwright of 1981. If 'loss' is the theme of "Virginia Woolf," can one say that being a 'loser' is the theme of "Three Arms"? By what sad and destructive path did this talented writer take to fall from his perch as a major voice in the theater to this pathetic rant against failure and humiliation? The whine began with "A Delicate Balance," but didn't seem to gather force until the seventies when Albee began to lose confidence. It seems according to his biographer Mel Gussow that he had trouble finding backers. Although prone to protestations to the contrary, Albee has always been a big-time Broadway playwright who needed big stars to carry his shows. By the seventies, Albee was begging regional directors to do his work, while B'way producers, evidently, were unwilling to return his calls. "Lolita" was a disaster of a production, or so it was said. Peter Hall, the great British director, has said in his memoirs that Albee was growing desperate, but had few takers for his plays at that time. This volume is fascinating because it contains among his stinkers, the play responsible for his professional resurrection: "Three Tall Women." John Lahr (of the New Yorker) said in his review of that play that it had looked as if the play were headed in the same direction of his more recent work - pretentious dialog, lacking wit - when suddenly Lahr noticed the play moving in the direction of Albee's earlier work: sharp realism, driven with gusto. Lahr and others declared Albee back from his long journey to nowhere. This success was then followed by numerous other better plays, and a series of revivals. This is a must-have addition to your theatrical library.
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( 1 of 1 found this review helpful ) Posted: Nov 10 2006
This Volume 3, which we can hope will not be the final volume, carries some of Albee's best work. Additionally, a piece or two that I don't know can be found elsewhere. Even reading his work is literally awesome. The beauty and poetry of his dialogue is sometimes practially beyong comprehending. This is an incredibly valuable volume to have on your shelf, on your night stand, somewhere you can pick it up and devour the genius of Mr. Ablee's work.
