Very good writing. I disliked all the characters. I didn't know what the play was about, which is OK, but a critic's blurb on the cover stated it was about the nothingness in our lives. It did have that 60's, nihilistic, hopelessness feel to it, which I often like (Heller, Vonnegut), but these characters annoyed the crap out of me and made me want to suggest they get hobbies or go for a bike ride. Something. ( )

This was a Pulitzer Prize winning play and I expected a little more from Albee, having read Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. The play was a family drama, first and foremost, that explores themes through its characters relating to friendship, intimacy, and loneliness. Edna is a character who moves along the focus of the book, and Tobias becomes a megaphone for the main ideas that Albee attempts to illustrate through the play. Overall, it was not a bad play, but I expected much better considering the awards and accolades that were bestowed on this work.

3 stars. ( )

A strange play that didn’t feel very realistic to me. The plot wasn’t believable and left me feeling skeptical. A middle-aged couple has their life thrown into turmoil when their best friends up here and decide to move in because of an unnamed terror that is making them anxious. Toss in an alcoholic sister and an adult daughter on her fourth marriage who wants to move back home as well and watch the conflict ensue. ( )

O cenário é uma casa de classe alta em Connecticut. Os moradores, um velho casal, a cujo casamento falta principalmente sexo; uma irmã alcoólatra; uma filha casada; e um par de vizinhos irritantes que, por causa de um ataque de ansiedade, se mudou para perto dos amigos. O texto é inteligente e perspicaz, mas não contém uma única ideia original. ( )

Edward Albee's follow-up to "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf", and it may be better than that play. A fine study of alienation and emptiness in marriage and family. It's been too long a time to remember the plot, but I remember thinking that what Jules Feiffer did in his cartoons, Edward Albee did in his plays. ( )