Τρεις Ψηλές Γυναίκες

by Edward Albee, Ερρίκος Μπελιές (Translator)

Στο έργο του,Τρεις Ψηλές Γυναίκες, ο Έντουαρντ Άλμπη περνάει από το θέμα των διαπροσωπικών σχέσεων, όπως το ανέπτυσσε σε προηγούμενα έργα του (Ιστορία του Ζωολογικού Κήπου, Ευαίσθητη Ισορροπία, Ποιος Φοβάται τη Βιρτζίνια Γουλφ), στην αντιμετώπιση ενός καίριου προβλήματος της εποχής μας:την αυτογνωσία. Οι τρεις ηρωίδες είναι στο πρώτο μέρος του έργου σε διαφορετικές ηλικίες:μια νέα, μια μεσήλικη και μια υπέργηρη, σαν τρεις διαφορετικοί άνθρωποι. Στο δεύτερο μέρος, όμως, αποκαλύπτεται πως αυτές οι τρεις γυναίκες είναι στην πραγματικότητα ο ίδιος άνθρωπος σε τρεις διαφορετικές φάσεις της ζωής του. Έργο με πολύ χιούμορ αλλά και σκληρότητα, γεμάτο αλήθειες, παίζεται συνέχεια στις διεθνείς σκηνές τα τελευταία χρόνια. Στην Ελλάδα παίχτηκε τη θεατρική περίοδο 1995-1996 στο Θέατρο Αθηνών και στους τρεις ρόλους πρωταγωνιστούσαν:Ελένη Χατζηαργύρη, Ζωή Λάσκαρη και Κατερίνα Μαραγκού, σε μετάφραση Ερρίκου Μπελιέ και σκηνοθεσία Ανδρέα Βουτσινά. Το κείμενο δημοσιεύεται για πρώτη φορά στην Ελλάδα.

Genres: Plays, Drama, Theatre, Classics, Fiction, Literature, 20th Century

112 pages

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Noted American playwright Edward Franklin Albee explored the darker aspects of human relationships in plays like Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962) and Three Tall Women (1991), which won his third Pulitzer Prize.

People know Edward Franklin Albee III for works, including The Zoo Story , The Sandbox and The American Dream .
He well crafted his works, considered often unsympathetic examinations of the modern condition. His early works reflected a mastery and Americanization of the theater of the absurd, which found its peak in European playwrights, such as Jean Genet, Samuel Barclay Beckett, and Eugène Ionesco. Younger Pulitzer Prize-winner Paula Vogel credits daring mix of theatricalism and biting dialogue of Albee with helping to reinvent the postwar theater in the early 1960s. Dedication of Albee to continuing to evolve his voice — as evidenced in later productions such as The Goat or Who Is Sylvia? (2000) — also routinely marks him as distinct of his era.

Albee described his work as "an examination of the American Scene, an attack on the substitution of artificial for real values in our society, a condemnation of complacency, cruelty, and emasculation and vacuity, a stand against the fiction that everything in this slipping land of ours is peachy-keen."

Reviews

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book Review
I enjoyed this play, but it was not my favorite in Albee's collections. This one show conflicts that people face on a daily basis in today’s society. It crosses reality and slices of life with a bitter or biting sense of accuracy. Are the 3 women truly the same person or do they just show characteristics of a woman at different stages in her life? The play deals with a multitude of situations people face as they age. It's meant to push readers or viewers into thinking beyond their immediate reactions, questioning an entire atmosphere of impact on human life. Albee was a treasure in that he was able to accomplish so much in so little, meaning with just a single play or book, he can leave your mind thinking for months about what it all means. One of the biggest contributions of Edward Albee would be the theatre that he formed in New York for new playwrights. Each playwright would put on his/her play for a few productions throughout one weekend. They would gain some experience, an audience, and recognition. Almost all of today’s famous and popular playwrights crossed Albee’s stage at some point. Another important contribution that Albee made to modern drama was his idea that each play needed to stand on its own. They should remain entirely separated from the author’s own life or problems. He also wanted to change the way that people looked at themselves. These two contributions combined are very important to modern drama. There needs to be a separation between playwright and play in order for both to be objective. Albee may have had some trouble following his own contributions a few times though. He tried to forget about his adoption and the effect it had on him, but somehow it seeps through to some of his plays. Albee is a very modern man himself. The focus of most of his plays was rarely stuck in the 1940s or 1950s, when he was initially writing. He writes stories that deal with problems evolving during the 1960s, and 1970s. Today, there is a focus on existentialist ideas and introspective thoughts.

About Me
For those new to me or my reviews... here's the scoop: I read A LOT. I write A LOT. And now I blog A LOT. First the book review goes on Goodreads, and then I send it on over to my WordPress blog at https://thisismytruthnow.com, where you'll also find TV & Film reviews, the revealing and introspective 365 Daily Challenge and lots of blogging about places I've visited all over the world. And you can find all my social media profiles to get the details on the who/what/when/where and my pictures. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Vote in the poll and ratings. Thanks for stopping by.

[Sketchbook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Albee's obnoxious Mum died in 1989 and a few years later
he wrote this impressive play about death and the changes
that occur in one's life. In the 60s, after the huge success
of "Virginia Woolf," he endured personal attacks from dumb-ox critics like Stanley Kauffmann and Robert Brustein. Philip Roth put in his censorious 2 cents. Suffering quietly, Albee made some dramatic missteps. By the 90s the world had changed and fresh critical blood was around. Freed from all the fools, Albee came up with, probably, his Best -- rivaled only by "The American Dream."

His play asks : what can we learn from experience ? Here's his thoughtful meditation on love and loathing, and the unbearable things we'd like to forget. ~~ But no one forgets.

[J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

a: (Not friendly.) She was smarter than me .. no: brighter, two years younger.
c: (Smiles.) Or five, or seven.
a: What ?
c: Nothing.
a: She always got better grades, had more beaux—when we were growing up. Only then; she missed more boats than you can shake a stick at.
c: (examining her nails.) I’ve never shook a stick at a boat.
b: (dry.) Well, maybe you should give it a try. Shaken; not shook.

This is one from the slow-dawning revelation school of modern drama. Where the interaction and plot that evolves on the stage slowly becomes subtext to the overriding narrative coup being played, well above the heads of the characters, and at first, at least, of the audience.

Stop reading this now if you'd rather not know about this, or if you're on your way out the door to the theater, because this 'trick' is what we'll be discussing here...

Edward Albee specializes in small chamber pieces that feature a few involved characters, each of whom will shift in importance to each other, to the audience, and to the meaning of the narrative at hand, as the play goes by. Unforeseen circumstances re-align our understanding of the proceedings on stage. Nothing remarkable there, but when it's done masterfully --Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf-- the effect is a strong emotional rip-tide, via the most minimal of means.

Well here it is: In Three Tall Women we are introduced to three characters who are in fact the same character. One woman --presumably the eldest as protagonist, though that will itself shift, with her wandering attention and competence-- but as dramatized by three separate characters, at three separate ages. (And also, a stray 'son' who drifts through, detached and uncaring, towards the end of the play. Perhaps the 'little bugger' or 'sonny jim' of Albee's past outings; a cypher.)

But the women are fascinating, both to the audience and to each other, because of their vast similarities at first, when we don't yet know why that should be-- and then as they recognize the common ground that tells their story. They seem very much to be Grandmother, Daughter and Grand-daughter, but as we listen, we realize otherwise. Albee lists his characters thus:

A a very old woman; thin, autocratic, proud.
B looks rather as A would have at 52; plainly dressed.
C looks rather as A would have at 26.
The Boy 23 or so; preppy dress.

The beguiling nature of their relation arrives only in implication, in glitches in the otherwise naturalistic conversation. The play on paper can only hint at what needs to be a little string-ensemble piece, a constantly variable hum of pace, timing, and then pace-broken, only to reset the timing. A lovely thing to imagine, ebbs and flows surely only fully imaginable within the proscenium.

For the modern viewer, this comes across as a still-potent interweave of observation and veiled observation about the stages of life; oh and yes, they don't have names, which should serve as a tip to the trickery, but doesn't really. Picture the Dowager of Downton Abbey, age fully advanced and partly senile, chatting with a snarky Lady Mary at middle age, and a slightly ditzy Lady Rose in her twenties. If they were all the same person, at different ages, having a meeting of the minds. More or less.

Proto-Stoppardian. Even though, in the year 1991, long after Stoppard was Stoppard. The grand Old Man come back to re-mentor the whipper-snapper with a tiny bit of chamber music.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has been on my list for years, although I'd always rather see a play than read it. Still, there are pleasures in both and this read was very pleasurable.

Three women, three ages, three perspectives on a life and on the world. I found myself reading the parts out loud. Albee has such a gift for poetic language that also works as just plain speech. So the play works realistically (although it isn't) and as a kind of poem.

Albee often makes me laugh even when what happening is quite sad. His characters are witty, articulate, and lost.

I hope I get to see this one on stage. I loved reading it.

[Jaksen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another in my 'Iwannareadsomeplays' series.

I grabbed this one and wow, another strange play by Mr. Albee, and one of course, which is most likely better 'seen' than read. (And aren't most plays?)

So you turn on your imagination as you read and you see these three 'tall women' as they live out entire lives in a fairly short presentation up on stage. Or you see them in your own living room as almost everyone alive today has to know one, or more, of these women. They are your grandmother, mother and yourself, or your mother, yourself and your child, if you have one. Or they are your best friend's mother and so on, and so on...

But then, as you read, or watch, you might come to the realization, that as these women talk, and deal with the eldest one's increasing dementia - an awful thing when in its worst form, as many of us know - which is...

All of these women are ONE woman at various times in her life. She is a young woman, a (late) middled-aged woman, a very elderly woman. Kind of a scary realization if you can get to that point.

Yet another play I'd love to see performed on the stage.

Four stars.

[Alan Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Three Tall Women is about Albee’s mother, her experiences, his relationship with her, and her struggles to make sense of and come to terms with the decisions she made throughout her. The play has two acts: Act 1 consists of a long conversation between a 90 year old woman, her caretaker/nurse, and a lawyer representing her estate. Act 2 gives us three versions of the same woman – one 26 years old, one 56 years old, and other in her 90s – all discussing their shared life. It is never stated directly that the woman in the play is Albee’s mother (for instance, the script lists the women as A, B, and C), but the similarities are telling. In the first act, we get a sense of the meaninglessness of life. The old woman has grown senile, and, as she discusses her life with her caretaker and lawyer, she continually gets confused regarding when or if certain events took place, who she was talking about (mixing people up), or why events or decisions were made. She laughs, weeps, remembers and forgets with torturous rapidity. At the end of Act 1 she has a stroke. Act 2 give us the three versions of the same woman discussing their shared life while walking around a deathbed. Their discussion is grim and bitter. The youngest (and most idealist) woman is horrified at what she later becomes (in the form of the two other women), and the older two women continually laugh at her naïveté. The lives and deaths of her parents are horrifically described (her own “loving” mother eventually becoming her sickly “enemy”); her marriage is revealed as motivated by money; her own and her husband’s infidelities are detailed; her husband’s nightmarish and painful death is also described; her continual compromises with her own ideals and dreams are listed; her lifelong, trenchant repressions come up again and again; and her disastrous relationship with her son is a major point of conversation. The middle aged woman often berated the oldest for lack of conviction – for instance, in visiting with their son again. The younger version berated the oldest for not living up to the youngest’s ideals. The oldest woman was the most resigned, the most accepting of her life. She never condemned the others, she would often simply smile and laughed while struggling to recall the youngest’s strange beliefs and hopes. Make no mistake, however, this is not a work without humor; but it is a gallows humor, an absurdist humor which asserts (via its jabs at naive idealism) that life is not without completely meaning, but, this meaning is never THE meaning one originally sets out to create. Nor is there anyway to map out or control where a life takes you. Nor is there any way to avoid the horrors and pains. The 26 year old woman looks into future and demands to know when her greatest joy will arrive, for surely, she has not had it already. The oldest woman responds, “Coming to the end of it [life], I think, when all the waves cause the greatest woes to subside, leaving breathing space, time to concentrate on the greatest woe of all – that blessed one – the end of it, Going through the whole thing and coming out […] Coming to the end of it; yes. So. There it is. You asked, after all. That’s the happiest moment.” Life is absurd, indeed, when one’s happiest moment in life is death. But, as the ladies might say, that’s what it is – deal with it! The experience I had viewing this play was a deeply cathartic one. Sometimes I feel as if, as I go through my day, I am constantly lied to: in the television and radio and internet ads; in all the superficial interactions a person encounters; in the infantile platitudes and clichés hurled at us meant to seduce us into different materialist or ideological ways of thinking; in all the strategic silences and distortions that friends and lovers and family tell each other because, always, the truth is too damn difficult. We live on lies. But, when I see an Albee play, one like Three Tall Women, I feel that, for once, finally, someone is being straight with me. It is a painful but liberated Truth that Albee bring us.

[Linda Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three Tall Women is coming to Broadway this spring, starring Glenda Jackson, Laurie Metcalf and Alison Pil. Powerful cast. I looked at preview tickets and thought about heading to NY, and got the play from the library first. The play by Edward Albee won beaucoups awards including the Pulitzer Prize in 1994. Albee also wrote Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. I could have read this with less anxiety had there been no foreword by Albee himself. In the back of my head was a memory of Albee having trouble with his mother (as it turns out, his stepmother). No, Albee, claims, this play is not a purging. It is not revenge. It is not a lot of things that launched the mind worm "he doth protest too much." The reviewers and the Pulitzer Prize committee concluded it was a thoughtful take on aging and end of life. It denigrates and infantilizes aging women, encourages the younger women in the play (and thus, the audience) to fear the Great Age Monster, both in person and in theory. I had a picture of Elizabeth Taylor spewing in the Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf movie, and of Sandy Dennis defending - whatever the hell she was defending. The three tall differently aged women are named A, B and C. By the end of the play I disliked that as well -feels dismissive, as though the playwright was bored with his characters. There's plenty of dark takes on old women right in the neighborhood. I don't have to fly to New York to see some more.

[Doug · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this 24 years ago when it first came out, and didn't think much of it at the time - but with the current Broadway production getting raves, I wanted to revisit it, and see if it (or more likely, I) had changed in the intervening years. I think I do 'get' the play better, now that the themes of aging and mortality creep closer to being relevant, but I still think it is a largely static and 'talky' play, and that it somewhat reiterates the same points over and over again. Still, would (almost) kill to see Glenda Jackson sink her teeth into the role of A!

[Kristen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm rather disappointed in this play from Albee. The disconnect between Act 1 and 2 for me what was the largest let down. The first act was uncomfortable, the racism and antisemitism did nothing for me and in retrospect after finishing it was rather pointless. In fact I feel most of Act 1 was pointless. I get the set-up in understanding each woman, but a whole act was not required for this, it's dragged out. Which is considerably sad given Act 2 was pretty decent. I understand where the was supposed to go, and I can imagine a version of this play that is amazing, but sadly this isn't it. I think this is one of those pieces that could do with a huge re-write, a new imagining with the same concept -- 3 women exploring their own life. So much potential in this, but sadly Three Tall Women didn't deliver for me.

[Stewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw the original production of this big comeback play of Albee's. What strikes me the most about the play is the psychological spectacle of it. Like the scene in Amadeus when Salieri marvels at "Don Giovanni" (the spectacle of Mozart "resurrecting" his dead father as the Commendatore to rise from the grave and accuse his son, etc etc), Albee raises his legendarily hateful mother from the grave and does something unnerving and beautiful - he sets her up naked and exposed for judgment, finds her "guilty", forgives her, and exorcises her...and at the end, perhaps identifies with her.

Biographical elements aside, the play is a powerful, moving examination of the humiliations of age and decline and the sad mysteries of a life reflected upon at the final curtain.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this a long time ago but I remembered it just now and I had to include it.

I remember being oddly, overwhelmingly moved by it, I can still feel the salty sting of tears beginning in my eyes as I think about it. I was, like, in its spell for a few hours afterward. I couldn't look at people, I couldn't work, I just stared mournfully into space.

I can't even remember what it was about, really, or even who wrote it (the title I remembered) but I do remember something about the last words...the last words...

I'm not going to spoil them for whoever's reading this but know this- I ain't much for a cryin' man, but I'm getting a little misty here talking about it.

[Steven R. Kraaijeveld · Rating 4 out of 5]

"They say you can't remember pain. Well, maybe you can't remember pleasure, either—in the same way, I mean, in the way you can't remember pain. Maybe all you can remember is the memory of it…remembering, remembering it. I know my best times—what is it? happiest?—haven't happened yet. They're to come. Aren't they? Please? And…and whatever evil comes, whatever loss and taking away comes, won't it all be balanced out? Please? I'm not a fool, but there is a lot of happiness along the way. Isn't there?" (107)

A powerful, at times brutal and confrontational play about three women (apparently), one of whom (apparently) is dying. I loved the play's form, which (if you don't know of it in advance) you only discover in the second act. Albee wrote the play shortly after the death of his adoptive mother, with whom he had a complicated and by no means happy relationship. A great example of life feeding into art.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s downhill from 16 on! For all of us!



This is a re-read of a play on my 5 star GR shelf.

This is a two act theatre-of-the-absurd play about a dying senile woman who is having a conversation with her middle aged self and her young adult self. Technically in the first act, the middle aged self is a caretaker and the youngest self is there to handle financial affairs of some sort. They morph in the second act. In any event these are the three tall women referenced in the title. The plot consists of the old woman telling scattered stories of her life to the others. The middle aged woman helps keep the protagonist focused. The younger one is mostly mortified by the storied and what is yet to come. The stories are told in fits and starts due to the dementia. Most of the stories are filled with regret and the pain of relationships. But there are some good memories mixed in as well. Most of the good memories of riding horses and going to parties.

Of all Albee’s great plays, this one still affects me the most. I think this is because the themes of mortality and mental decline are so universal and unavoidable.

But is this play really that absurdist? After all, through our inner monologue, most of us have conversations with our former selves. Our lives are constantly in replay mode. Or at least this is my experience. This is largely why I read poetry and literature and plays. It allows me to revisit my own past and unlock memories (good and bad) that I have forgotten about. This rarely happens when I watch films or tv.


I will concede that this play is not as clever as Albee’s The Zoo Story or as dramatic as Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolff. But Three Tall Women has always felt much more personal to me than the other plays and remains my favorite Albee play.

5 stars. Highly recommended.

[Jana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three Tall feisty dark disturbed but always very interesting women.

I really enjoy reading drama. I had hoped to see this in NYC. With luck I will see it before I get to woman A’s age.

6-16-18:
I saw the play last night! Broadway. With Laurie Metcalf. What. A. Show.

[Stuart · Rating 5 out of 5]

I so admire how brave Albee is. He is unafraid to make an audience squirm, (best example "The Goat..." ) But our squirming is never without an authentic opportunity for reflection.

Here we reflect on our choices, and perhaps the illusion of free will as we hurtle towards death. It's not light, but it is incredibly funny.

This play reads beautifully. I wish I was back in NYC to see Metcalf and Jackson in the first Bway production. But I imagined them saying the lines as I read, creating a theater in my mind. (More stage directions than I expected.)

Albee is a God. Full stop. No one has approached his magnificence in the last 50 years. His plays never fail to inspire, disturb, provoke and console.

[Nathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Damn, Albee knows how to write a play. The simplicity of structure and the straight-forward banter of his characters make this emotionally complex play a must read for anyone interested in modern theatre. One need only look to Albee to see the standard by which all contemporary work must be measured. His prose are pointed and unmitigatedly nuanced. Albee uses a "light touch" surrealism that brings his subject-matter (in this case, the human life-cycle) into blinding focus. Next to "Virginia Woolf," this has to be my favorite of his work. Read it!

[♥ Sandi ❣ · Rating 3 out of 5]

A tight little play with only 4 characters, one of which is barely visible.

Major characters are 3 women - one young, one middle aged and one old. Now you see 3 characters in the varying stages of life, but only one life is really being portrayed. As you advance through this play you understand that the story of the three is really an amalgamation of only one woman.

Very well orchestrated and tightly woven - enjoyable read.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

So-so. (I have to add that a professor of mine once claimed she'd had Edward Albee over for drinks at her house once, and he got totally smashed and hit on all the men there, or something like that. I'm not sure if that's true, or just an embellishment, but it's more interesting than anything I have to say about the play itself.)

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting examination of the stages of one woman's life, through three characters playing the same person at different ages. Albee-weirdness, yes, but this is actually pretty clear and easy to follow. Nice sense of humor. Kind of cold conclusions about life and motivations and happiness.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't understand this... Or rather I don't know why it needed to be written. It seems to be an examination on aging and looking back at one's life. But I don't know why Albee chose this woman. She's bitter and flawed and unapologetic. Not a pleasant reading experience.

[Ingrid Knipfer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I saw the play in NYC in 1994 and based one of my own plays on it ‘ Het appartement’ part of three plays. Dutch edition ‘Het gebouw’ published in 2014.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

As candid as they come, this intellectual piece addresses growing older and regrets made along the way told through three individual voices who might not be as individual as they initially appear.

[Darren · Rating 4 out of 5]

4*

[Evi Routoula · Rating 4 out of 5]

Το καταπληκτικό αυτό έργο του Έντουαρτ Άλμπι πρωτοπαίχτηκε στην Ελλάδα το 1996 στο θέατρο Αθηνών σε σκηνοθεσία Ανδρέα Βουτσινά και στους πρωταγωνιστικούς ρόλους τις Ελένη Χατζηαργύρη, Ζωή Λάσκαρη και Κατερίνα Μαραγκού. Έκτοτε έχει ανέβει πολλές φορές στις ελληνικές σκηνές. Και δικαιολογημένα. Στην πρώτη πράξη συναντάμε τρεις γυναίκες: μια ηλικιωμένη, μια μεσήλικα και μια νεαρή. Έχουμε την εντύπωση πως πρόκειται για τρεις διαφορετικές υπάρξεις. Στην δεύτερη πράξη όμως γίνεται φανερό στον αναγνώστη- θεατή ότι είναι το ίδιο ακριβώς πρόσωπο σε τρεις διαφορετικές ηλικίες της ζωής του. Οι τρεις εκφάνσεις της ίδιας γυναίκας συζητάνε μεταξύ τους, είναι ένας υπέροχος διάλογος με τον εαυτό μας: οι προσδοκίες της νεότητας, τα λάθη που κάναμε, οι όμορφες στιγμές μας, τα συμπεράσματά μας. Ένα εξαιρετικό ταξίδι αυτογνωσίας.

[Old Man JP · Rating 3 out of 5]

A play with three characters, a woman in her nineties who is dying and two caretakers, one aged fifty two and the other twenty six. Each of the women are tall and resemble each other in different stages of their lives. As they talk it slowly becomes apparent that they are all, actually, the same woman. It is a slightly confusing and strange tale but kind of clever, at the same time.

[Riley Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like his prose and it’s very interesting but it just rings false. It doesn’t feel like three women, it feels like three what-men-think-women-care-about. It’s all height and male genitalia and diamonds.

Not to say we don’t care about these things. It just felt inauthentic. I think Albee should have just written Three Tall Men instead.

[Reagan · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Annie Fang · Rating 3 out of 5]

my death anxiety had a field day with this one. for me it was really all about those last few pages. the evolving relationship to self, happiness, time, memory - all heavy and poignant. i wonder if albee ever got anxious while writing.

[Tess Condron · Rating 3 out of 5]

act 2 was great

[Timur Markowitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting. I think Albee does a great job at crafting these dense characters and making us know so little and so much about them