The Cambridge Companion to Edward Albee (review)

The problem with so many collections of essays is that they lack an arc. This is not the case in this wonderful collection by some of the greatest Edward Albee scholars. This strong volume combines breadth of coverage with depth of analysis, both placing the principal plays in chronological order so that the reader can perceive the development of Albee's oeuvre, and gathering sophisticated, insightful analyses of all of Albee's major works. What is most provocative, perhaps, is that editor Stephen Bottoms proposes that Albee might be beginning his most fruitful period, much like Eugene O'Neill's late resurgence. If this is correct, there will definitely be a second edition of the present volume, much to the delight of Albee scholars and drama fans everywhere.

In his introduction, Bottoms divides Albee's career into three parts. First, he presents Albee's early experimental theatre as establishing the themes to which the playwright would return throughout his life. For example, Bottoms argues that in Making of a Saint (1952–53), Albee poses the question that defines much of his work: "Will one choose to take the train of life, or remain seated in the delusory security of the station?" (2). This is much like the question of "participation" that occupies the 1952 play, The Invalid (2). Moving on to the second phase of Albee's career (beginning with his adaptation of James Purdy's novel Malcolm [1966]), Bottoms argues that with the exception of two successes—A Delicate Balance (1966) and Seascape (1975)—the plays of this middle period suffered from being either "too formalistic or intellectually oriented" or "too bleak or depressing" (5). However, Albee pulled himself out of "failed has-been" status during the 1980s to resurrect his career and begin the third and final phase of his writing life (7). The playwright, instead of dealing with New York City, went where he was wanted, which included a still-standing relationship with the University of Houston. With Three Tall Women (1991), Albee shattered his image as a cold intellectual and created a "strangely affectionate portrait of an elderly woman" (8). Surveying his subsequent output, Bottoms ponders whether Albee's career is entering its most productive phase, especially with the productions of The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? (2002) and Homelife (2004).

Following Bottoms's introduction, Philip Kolin begins the assembled chapters with a discussion of Albee's one-act plays. He describes Albee as the "angry bird of youth" who attacks the "cherished myths of his own country and theatre" (16). Albee accomplished this through the combination of dramatic realism and absurdism in the face of social change and reform to prick the "illusions of identity" (35). In speaking about Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Matthew Roudané continues where Kolin left off, echoing his sentiments about the interconnection of metaphysics and social change in Albee's drama.

John Clum looks at Albee's next three plays—Tiny Alice, A Delicate Balance, and Finding the Sun—to see how they deal with impotence and marriage. Arguing that gay characters find even less fulfillment than heterosexual married couples, Albee's characters are always looking for the spiritual, the emotional, and the sexual, but they are always left with feelings of "discontent and disappointment" (73). Thomas Adler follows up on this by looking at Albee's Pulitzer Prize–winning plays through the lens of change. Adler argues that although change is necessary for growth, it evokes the fear of the unknown. He proposes that A Delicate Balance ranks among the likes of The Iceman Cometh, Long Day's Journey into Night, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Death of a Salesman for the way that this play, and his other Pulitzer Prize–winning plays, are "act[s] of aggression against the status quo" (88).

Brenda Murphy discusses how Albee treats life choices and death from an impersonal standpoint in Box and Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung, whereas Albee is the most...