His recommendation [for how to watch one of his plays]?
“Pretend you’re at the first play you’ve ever seen ”” have that experience ”” and I think ‘what the play is about’ will reveal itself quite readily.”
Ben Brantley, chief drama critic of The New York Times, says Albee is “without peer among American playwrights.”
“Certainly of his generation,” Brantley says, “but I would say period.”
Among living dramatists, Brantley says, no one else takes the grand themes Albee does.
“I’m not talking about questions of politics or immediate topical issues,” Brantley stresses. “Edward Albee asks questions ”” the most basic existential questions. He confronts death, he confronts sex with, I think, eyes that remain very wide open.”
I hope Kendal isn’t recommending this fellow’s work. I would have thought he had put playwrights like him behind him. Doesn’t he believe in the priesthood of Albee leavers?
“Who’s Afraid . . .” is a significant cultural milestone, not in all good ways, but still an achievement. But Albee today looks goats in the eye, not human concerns, let alone transcendent ones.
I’m sure his Nobel is just a matter of living long enough.
I once had the privilege of playing Honey in “Who’s Afraid…” some years ago. I agree with Knapsack above re: the good and the not so good. But I must say that being able to bring some life to Albee’s words is an actress’s dream, at least for me. I had been know for musicals & comedies only and was given the chance, by a fabulous director, to try something with some “teeth”. It was not easy, by any means, but awfully rewarding.