The Lady from Dubuque

by Edward Albee

Book by Edward Albee, Albee, Edward

Genres: Plays, Drama, Theatre, Fiction

72 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

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

[Jenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The thing is, there are moments of brilliance in this. Moments when I was struck to my core. But there are also moments of, "What in the world is happening right now and why should I care?"

However, I have actually seen this play as well, (with Maggie Smith in the title role) and it was worth every penny. The right cast made this script fabulous. The wrong cast could make it drudgery. But then again, I suppose you could say that about any play.

[Carrie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this, considering I am from Dubuque, but I can understand why its opening run was only 12 days.

[Ricky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely more in the TINY ALICE vein of Albee's work. Actually it sort of seemed like TINY ALICE and THE AMERICAN DREAM crossed with A DELICATE BALANCE and WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?

[Olivia · Rating 2 out of 5]

The characters are right, 20 questions is kind of a sucky game.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe more like 3.5, but I really liked the second act on this one. A woman is ill. She and her partner have a party. They adjourn and in the morning find two mysterious strangers there who weren't at the party but won't leave. Are they criminals? Is one of them the woman's mother? Are they something entirely more foreboding? The first act of this lags on the page a little, but I'd still love to see it staged.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of craziness going on in this emotional almost mystery story.

[Michael Farrell · Rating 1 out of 5]

too mean and tired for me to get beyond act 1

[Matthew Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most emotionally impactful plays I've ever seen...and not for the faint of heart.

[Meemsi · Rating 4 out of 5]

DAMN

[Irene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Opgevoerd door publiekstheater als
de dame uit de provincie.
Gezine in de provincie... Tiel 1982