A Delicate Balance [Paperback]

Edward Albee (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0452278090 | ISBN-13: 978-0452278097 | Publication Date: January 1, 1997 | Edition: First Plume Edition

Albee's Pulitzer Prize-winning play--winner of the 1996 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play--is now available in a trade paperback edition. A dark comedy about unfulfilled lives, broken promises, and family jealousies, A Delicate Balance has just been revived to triumphant acclaim at Lincoln Center's Plymouth Theatre in New York City.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Plume; First Plume Edition edition (January 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452278090
• ISBN-13: 978-0452278097
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #643,309 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nice Play!, October 22, 2000

By 

Tom White "playwright" (Austin, Texas USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Delicate Balance (Paperback)

To date, Edward Albee has won three Pulitzer prizes, has written one of the most famous plays ever--WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? (surprisingly not among the three)--and also has written the most famous one-act ever, THE ZOO STORY. A DELICATE BALANCE is one of the Pulitzer winners; anyone who cares about theatre will love this. In performance an electrifying evening, it is also a darn good read--again and again. A tragedy at times hilarious, the stylized piece is an examination of friendship contrasted with family, in which the playwright creates six delicous characters--roles actors especially love and often perform brilliantly. Katherine Hepburn's filmed version comes to mind--a near perfect expression of the matriarch Agnes, who has several problems: her alcoholic sister is drinking in the living room, her daughter is coming home after a failed 4th marriage, and her friends Edna and Harry have decided to move in because they are "afraid" of something. Agnes's husband Tobias is polite, detached, and reasonable. Against bristling tension, the author uses drunken Claire as comic counterpoint to brilliant effect, giving her an accordion (of all things) as prop with which to accent and poke fun. (There's a wonderful sight gag near the end where this character, who isn't supposed to have one drink, is discovered holding two.) We also smile when mousy Edna tries to re-decorate Agnes's home and speaks to the divorcing Julia as if she were her own daughter. (How easily shyness moves to assertiveness, then imperceptibly to cruelty.) So we laugh to keep from crying--but laugh we do! And although Agnes is unforgettable, nevertheless it is Tobias who gets the climactic "aria," an attempt to put his house in order. The dramatist calls our bluff on what we mean by "friends," fusing big ideas in three elegant acts, crystallizing mysterious beauty from carefully chosen words. The result is a theatrical touchstone, one of Edward Albee's many masterpieces, a magnificent gem of a play.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of Albee's Best, June 28, 2003

By 

"plattypus" (Paradise Valley, AZ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Delicate Balance (Paperback)

Albee, the playwright who invented one of the more complicated and vivid relationships ever in a play in ZOO STORY, has again demonstrated his intimate knowledge of the deeper motives behind human interaction. Every interaction between characters in this play -- from long monologues to short snippets of conversation -- has behind it some manner of conflict.

Everybody in this play needs change, and can only reach it through the destruction of others; Tobias and Agnes who simply want to be left alone, but whose house has been invaded; Julia, the daughter who is betrayed by the fact that her parents gave away her room; Claire, who wants only to excercise her right to a good time; Edna and Harry who aren't quite sure what they need, and subsequently frustrate everyone else.

This is a very heavy play, but written in a such a way that is has the guise of being a comedy. A must-read for anybody that loves drama.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Who is mad?, January 10, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: A Delicate Balance (Paperback)

Agnes open the play with a monologue in which she contemplates the possibility that one day, unexpectedly, she might turn mad. She says she contemplates it with astonishment, but she does not sound very astonished at all, she is more... fashinated by the idea. Her husband is listening, but not listening at all as if he could not hear Agnes, or her talking about the possibility of becoming mad was perfectly normal, or she has been mad a long time and he discounts her.
I won't spoil the play, but (for me) it is an interesting investigation in what it means to be mad. Indeed it is not clear who is mad, probably all of them, possibly none. The bounderies of madness are not clearly drawn and characters seem to shift in and out of it on a continuous basis. Rules of the polite society are called into question. Is it mad to break them or to upkeep them?

The play is enjoyable to read, but not overly so, it is above everything else, enjoyable to think about.