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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Albee's 1971 Meditation on Death, March 27, 2004
Albee's 1971 meditation on death is a challenging work. It takes a delicate balance to bring the poetry of the text to life and to enrich the characters on stage without getting lost in the static nature of the unfolding drama. In a very quiet way, this play has as many barbs as "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" but contains only a fraction of the humor that is in "Virginia Woolf". The subject of death runs through every thread of the play and presents variations on the theme through the characters and their identities and conflicts. This 1976 television production (originally staged for the theatre by the Hartford Stage Company and taped for Connecticut Public Television) suffers from an overall stiffness in the acting ensemble and an unfortunate restraint in the approach that works against sustaining interest for the viewer but there are good performances. Myra Carter as the Mistress and Anne Lynn as the Daughter are two tall Albee women to be reckoned with. Since it is unlikely that this play will appear on DVD again (unless a Broadway revival were to revive interest), this is a disc worth collecting if for no other reason than to enjoy Edward Albee's fascinating dialogue and to retain a production of this play.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Forget waiting for Godot....try waiting for death!, March 11, 2011
Edward Albee, born in 1928, is over eighty years old now, Pulitzer Prize winner and the play that receives most recognition is Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? . Albee was a 1996 Kennedy Center Honoree. His themes often cover women and familial relationships. His work reflects Theatre of the Absurd. If you have not read his work, do not expect All Over to be similar to Virginia Woolf. The 1976 performance of All Over is a lengthy family play that deals with a famous family man who lies dying in the great room behind the curtain. His family, wife 71 and her "friend" the lawyer plus, the middle-age daughter and son are present. Also, waiting for him to die is his mistress, 60ish, and the nurse and doctor. The press waits in outside for the news. All action is confined to the bed-sitting room where the family members have come to wait for the death to occur. Through reminiscences, you learn the family strife, a mother who really has no connection with her children. She seems to feel closer to the mistress. There is talk of envy, self-loathing, rebellion, affairs, emptiness, and of course death. Albee's play was not received well on Broadway. It originally opened in 1971 with few performances. The play is over 90 minutes while the heavy dialogue is great, it is not for anyone seeking more action in the performances. ....Rizzo
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2.0 out of 5 stars
All "in", October 18, 2008
This review is from: All Over (Broadway Theatre Archive) [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Despite an able cast and direction by John Gielgud, Edward Albee's "All Over" was one of the bigger failures of the 1971 Broadway season. In this distasteful drama, an unseen man lays dying a horrific death. His wife, mistress, children and best friend show hatred for each other as they talk about how much or little this fellow meant to them. The idea that a wife and mistress would hold a death vigil together is bad enough, but the spouse of 50 years is a despicable loudmouth who deserves a huge slap. The vitriol she spews at her daughter is returned in kind. The viewer just wants this misery to end and when the doctor says "All over" and the curtain falls you can just picture torn program litter and a stampede for the exits. Don't be fooled by a famous name. The Coca-Cola folks flopped in the 80's with "New Coke," Ford had its Edsel, and after " Gilligan's Island," Sherwood Schwartz created " Dusty's Trail." Mr. Albee's ALL OVER is every one of these failures (and more) rolled into one. Brickbats to the Hartford Stage and PBS's "Great Performance" series for reviving a patient that was better off dead. BROADWAY THEATRE ARCHIVES rarely presents material such as the above. Their reissue of the 1966 TV version of Maxwell Anderson's THE STAR WAGON (with Orson Bean, Eileen Brennan and Dustin Hoffman) is absolutely marvelous, and highly recommended. ( VHS edition) ( DVD edition)
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