Conversations with Edward Albee

by Philip C. Kolin (Editor), Edward Albee

Edward Albee has reigned over the American theater since 1959. By transporting the techniques of European absurdism to American soil, he ushered in a new era in the American theater. He has said he won two and one-half Pulitzers---one for Delicate Balance, one for Seascape, and the one-half supposedly for Virginia Woolf, which the Pulitzer committee denied to Albee in 1962 because they objected to the language of the play.Albee's numerous roles and achievements are reflected in the lively interviews in this collection. These reveal the many sides and responses of one of the most significant dramatists of our age. In them we see the poised and guardedly amiable Albee; the angry Albee; the speculative and philosophical Albee; the historical-critical Albee; and the witty Albee.

Albee talks knowledgeably and frankly about every phase of staging his plays---the many personalities involved in the process and the playwright's prerogatives, which he jealously guards.

These twenty-seven interviews contain a rich sampler of Albee's own scathing wit, his wry humor, and his sometimes biting, sardonic innuendo. His targets are many---the New York theater critics, television, Hollywood and films, complacent America, and lazy audiences.

Genres: Nonfiction

223 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1986

Reviews

[Robert Zaslavsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is as revealing as one can expect a writer's conversational disclosures to be. All those who think that a play can be understood only through performance should pay special attention to Albee's prescriptions that the only way to understand a play truly is to read the text and create in one's own mind a performance as close to the ideal performance that the playwright had in mind when writing the play.