From Tension to Tonic: The Plays of Edward Albee (A Chicago Classic)

The first serious contemporary dramatist to come from off-Broad­way and successfully break through the financial barriers and strict proscriptions of commercial American theatre, Albee is also the first, if not the only one, of his generation to have tried out successfully such diverse dramatic forms as naturalism, surrealism, symbolism, farce, tragicomedy, and meta­physical allegory. In the decade since Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962) Albee thus has earned a reputation as the most promising of the young American playwrights. His honors include a Pulitzer Prize in 1967 for A Delicate Balance.

To a small but expanding body of critical interpretation of Albee’s work, Anne Paolucci has made this important contribution. Her keen and appreciative insights will aid the reader and theatregoer in obtaining a broader, more thorough understanding of Albee’s plays and his ideas about the theatre.