Albee in Performance (review)

Rakesh Solomon's insightful study Albee in Performance appeals to a broad spectrum of readers. Scholars, teachers, and Edward Albee fans will want to read it for interpretations of characters and themes in Albee's plays. Directors and designers will enjoy the book from the standpoint of theatrical production. Theatre students at all levels can learn about their craft from case studies of how Albee himself solved production problems.

Solomon observed rehearsals and performances of fifteen Albee-directed productions since the mid-1970s, interviewing Albee, actors, and other theatre artists involved (and from original productions not directed by Albee—for example, that by Alan Schneider). The result is a fascinating examination of the interdependency of page and stage, the author's intentions and the production's realizations, and the collaborative nature of theatre, even when a playwright directs his own plays. This is not, as Solomon says, "to suggest some naïve intentionalism" (198); rather, the "study treats Albee's intentions and his opinions on the staging and interpretation of his plays, not as a yardstick for measuring his success against avowed aims, not as canonical or sacred pronouncements, but as crucial theatre-historical evidence as well as compelling textual readings" (6).

As Solomon notes, not many studies of a playwright directing his or her own plays exist; thus Albee in Performance not only fills a major gap in Albee scholarship, but it also contributes to theatre studies. Solomon makes comparisons to other playwright-directors of note, such as George Bernard Shaw, Bertolt Brecht, and Samuel Beckett, as well as to significant directors of the twentieth century like Schneider, Elia Kazan, and Lee Strasberg. He fixes Albee in the context of directing as it evolved in the twentieth century from Stanislavski at the Moscow Art Theatre to the Group Theatre, Actors Studio, and beyond. When Albee directed his own plays he became the first interpreter of them. Therefore as Solomon states: "Albee's views about his plays and their appropriate realization in performance constitute important testimony about his dramaturgic and directorial aesthetic" (198).

What is Albee's directorial aesthetic, according to Solomon? First, as playwright he creates "performance texts" (13), which he does not cut until he is in rehearsal negotiating the conflict between the impossible desires of the author and the practical possibilities of the production's stage, designers, and actors. Although he often casts actors with whom he has previously worked, Albee does not write with specific actors in mind. Believing that "ninety percent of [a successful production] is casting" (223), he takes the open-call audition process seriously and contractually exerts major control over casting even when he himself is not directing. He rehearses plays in sequence, blocking as quickly as possible. During run-throughs, Albee sits in all areas of the auditorium to ensure that the performance reaches the entire audience. He also listens over an intercom to the actors focusing on delivery, making sure that his rhythms are right. Albee eschews excessive business and props, preferring simplicity and clarity, a minimalist theatre. It was Schneider's fondness for theatrical clutter and lack of humor that caused Albee to take over directing his plays after more than a decade of collaboration. (Nevertheless, Albee requested that Schneider direct the premiere of The Lady from Dubuque and has mostly praise for him, from whom Albee learned to direct.)

Albee states that "subtext is more important than text" (130); he prefers not to give line readings, but general character notes, allowing the actors to find specifics to realize what he wants for their particular character (94), and most actors that Solomon interviews praise Albee for that artistic freedom. One interviewee, however, believes the playwright's directorial weakness is that, never having acted himself, he is unable to help less experienced actors. However, another actor refutes this:

The best actors in his plays are the actors who know how to take care of themselves, know how to do their homework, have experience, and come in very prepared. The more you give him, the...