Edward Albee

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, performed on Broadway in 1962, was Edward Albee's first full-length play. It was a smash hit and established Albee as a leading dramatist of the USA. This new study explores Albee's remarkable dedication to the theatre, and his determination to develop a deeply personal view of contemporary experience through the public medium of drama. Gerald McCarthy describes Albee's experiments in dramatising his personal sensations of loss, and shows his ability to make his audience suffer from experience. Albee's natural strengths as a man of the theatre are identified, in particular his brilliant and versatile use of language, and his sensitivity to theatrical style. The development of Albee's work and thought is traced through all the major plays for both stage and radio, with detailed discussions of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, A Delicate Balance, All Over, Seascape and The Lady from Dubuque.