The Play About The Baby

The Play About The Baby is Albee in vaudeville mode. The characters -- Man, Woman, Boy and Girl -- inhabit a timeless space where they engage in games of love, loss, pain and memory. The most obvious precursor here is Albee's own Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. However, instead of the hypernaturalism of the earlier play, Albee goes for vaudeville this time. In fact, TPATB's Man and Woman might be George and Martha from Who's Afraid, having left New Carthage and now wandering around dispensing their hard-earned (and often unwanted) wisdom. (Or are Boy and Girl just George and Martha at an earlier phase of their lives? Albee's graceful allusiveness and ambiguity are in full force here). Either way, TPATB's humor, while less caustic than its predecessor's, is just as entertaining and theatrical.

But don't let me mislead you: both plays are scathing in their assessment of human behavior and clear in their demand that human beings look closely at themselves and the world in which they live. Albee is not out to comfort his audience (has he ever been?), but to confront them -- to wake up, take stock and abandon their cozy pipe dreams. Like O'Neill, Albee writes of the deadening illusions men and women wrap themselves in; like Williams he challenges the system of mendacity that rules people's lives.

If you were lucky enough to see The Play About The Baby when it ran Off-Broadway, reading it now will only deepen your appreciation for Albee's artistry. If you are coming to the work for the first time, look forward to a feast of stimulating wit and ideas.

Albee's Vaudeville
There was a time when all of Edward Albee's plays were published during or just after their runs. Even lesser known works such as The Lady from Dubuque and Everything in the Garden made it into print. So it is a delight to see that Overlook Press has issued The Play About The Baby in hardcover and will do the same with The Goat in May, 2003. If any American playwright needs to be in print, it is Edward Albee.

The Play About The Baby is Albee in vaudeville mode. The characters -- Man, Woman, Boy and Girl -- inhabit a timeless space where they engage in games of love, loss, pain and memory. The most obvious precursor here is Albee's own Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. However, instead of the hypernaturalism of the earlier play, Albee goes for vaudeville this time. In fact, TPATB's Man and Woman might be George and Martha from Who's Afraid, having left New Carthage and now wandering around dispensing their hard-earned (and often unwanted) wisdom. (Or are Boy and Girl just George and Martha at an earlier phase of their lives? Albee's graceful allusiveness and ambiguity are in full force here). Either way, TPATB's humor, while less caustic than its predecessor's, is just as entertaining and theatrical.

But don't let me mislead you: both plays are scathing in their assessment of human behavior and clear in their demand that human beings look closely at themselves and the world in which they live. Albee is not out to comfort his audience (has he ever been?), but to confront them -- to wake up, take stock and abandon their cozy pipe dreams. Like O'Neill, Albee writes of the deadening illusions men and women wrap themselves in; like Williams he challenges the system of mendacity that rules people's lives.

If you were lucky enough to see The Play About The Baby when it ran Off-Broadway, reading it now will only deepen your appreciation for Albee's artistry. If you are coming to the work for the first time, look forward to a feast of stimulating wit and ideas.

Classic Albee....with a fresh feel.
After all these years, Edward Albee still remains on top of his game. This play is classic Albee with the trademark sarcasm, biting dialogue, and socially critical themes...but with contemporary sensibilites that help keep the play from feeling old or recycled. It's also one of his funniest plays in quite a while. And, of course, Albee continues to push the envelope by tackling provocative subject matter. While this play doesn't rise to the heights achieved by Who's Afraid of Va. Woolf or Tiny Alice, it certainly ranks up with the top 1/3 of his work. Strongly recommended. A must have for any die-hard Albee fan...and should be on the short-list for any Albee virgins.