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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Edward Albee's drama about the terror of modern angst, 13 Aug 2003
Edward Albee won the Pulitzer Prize for his 1966 play "A Delicate Balance," and while there are those who see this particular play as a second-rate "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" that critique truthfully surprises me because I see little in common between the two plays. Albee's earliest and obviously greatest work was at its heart a dramatic rejoinder to Eugene O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh," and a statement about the importance of fantasy when confronted with a harsh world. "A Delicate Balance" is about the angst of contemporary living, and while this might be a counterpoint of sorts to "Virginia Woolf" it is most definitely not rehashing the original argument.The play begins with Agnes and Tobias, enjoying what passes for a quiet evening at home, which includes an encounter with her heavy-drinking sister Claire. Whereas Agnes speaks to the long-suffering Tobias, Claire actually engages the man in conversation. The only thing the two sisters have in common is apparently the ability to bring out the worst in each other. The play gets to the root of the matter when Harry and Edna, the best friends of Tobias and Agnes, arrive unexpectedly. Clearly upset, they finally explain that they were at home when suddenly they both became terrified. Fleeing their home they have come to stay with Agnes and Tobias (although it takes a while for everyone to understand Harry and Edna are moving in). The couple take up residence in the room of Julia, the daughter of Agnes and Tobias, who returns home after the failure of her fourth marriage to discover somebody else in her room, which forces Julia into her father's room and Tobias to move back with Agnes. However, Julia is very upset that "her" room has been given away and finally says what the audience has been thinking: How can her parents just let this couple move in? There are explanations, haltingly provided by Harry and Edna. We might want everything to be explained by Claire with her forthright way of speaking or Agnes who belabors a point to death, but Albee is here to show and not merely to tell. The biting wit and memorable one-liners from "Virginia Woolf" are not here, but the characters are clearly in as much pain. The pivotal moment comes when Tobias finally speaks to the matter at hand, only to be told it is too late. The question then becomes whether or not the audience has gotten Albee's subtle point.
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by Friedrich Durrenmatt
![A Delicate Balance [1973] [DVD] [1976]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/515HZ3QWPYL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
DVD ~ Katharine Hepburn
by Howard Barker
by Michel Tremblay
by Edward Albee
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