Play About the Baby: Trade Edition

Play About the Baby: Trade Edition

Winner of three Pulitzer Prizes for Drama during his long and distinguished career, Edward Albee is one of Americaâ€™s preeminent playwrights.

The Play About the Baby is an absurdist black comedy, reminiscent of burlesque in its high spirits and banter, that grapples with such issues as reality and the games we play to define it, the ambiguity of existence, and the agonizing bonds between parents and children. A fresh young coupleâ€”Boy and Girlâ€”have a new baby, whom an older coupleâ€”Man and Womanâ€”have come to steal. Why? Because, as Man says, â€œIf you donâ€™t have the wound of a broken heart, how can you know youâ€™re alive?â€ Brutal lossâ€”the loss of a child or childhood selfâ€”has been a recurring Albee theme, and Ben Brantley of the New York Times summed up the critical reaction to The Play About the Baby when he called it a â€œfunny, harrowing dramatic fable â€¦ as explicit and concise a statement of what Mr. Albee believes as he is ever likely to deliver.â€

You might also like...