Author Description

Albee was hailed, on first appearance, as one of the best playwrights America has yet produced: and, though some of his more recent plays have disappointed their audiences, The Zoo story, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and A Delicate Balance have all been very successful. This study is the first evaluation of Albee's work, with the exception of a monograph issued by the American Studies Institute in Brussels, Dr Bigsby devotes more space to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? than to any other of Albee's plays, but he also provides extensive analyses of Schism (Albee's first play), The Zoo story, A Delicate Balance (which won the Pulitzer prize), Tiny Alice, The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, and Malcolm. Many critics have tried to force Albee into the theatre of the absurd. To round off his discussion of particular plays, Dr Bigsby shows that his belief in the possibility of communication, and in man's capacity for compassion and self -improvement, convincingly exclude him from that domain. If Albee owes anything to European exponents of the absurd, it is merely a matter of style. Despite weaknesses, his work in Dr Bigsby's view challenges comparison with the plays of Arthur Miller and Eugene O'Neill.