THE STORY: Three young couples are playing Twenty Questions. The drinks have been flowing, so the mood has gone from good to bad in a very short time. As it happens, the hostess, who has the most abrasive tongue of all, is dying of cancer, and the party e

Three acclaimed one-act plays from the early years of the author of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. With the initial productions of The Death of Bessie Smith, The Sandbox, and The American Dream, Albee consolidated his reputation as a brilliant new talent of the New York theater scene. These three plays tackle major themes such as race relations, American family life, and the essence of theater itself—each of which still continue to resonate. Representing the bold and exciting periods in the then-young career of widely considered America’s most popular and imaginative playwrights, this edition is a must-have for theater lovers. “One of the few genuinely great living American dramatists.” —Ben Brantley, The New York Times

Visitors cause trouble for a pair of suburbanites in this Pulitzer Prize–winning play by the author of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. Wealthy middle-aged couple Agnes and Tobias have their complacency shattered when their longtime friends Harry and Edna appear at their doorstep. Claiming an encroaching, nameless “fear” has forced them from their own home, these neighbors bring a firestorm of doubt, recrimination and ultimately solace, upsetting the “delicate balance” of Agnes and Tobias’s household . . . In recent years, A Delicate Balance has enjoyed many and new stunning revivals, running now, including a Broadway production in 1996, which won the Tony Award for Best Revival, and another at the Alameida Theatre in London in 2011. “Theatrical fireworks.” —The New York Times

America's most important living playwright, Edward Albee, has been rocking our country's moral, political and artistic complacency for more than 50 years. Beginning with his debut play, The Zoo Story (1958), and on to his barrier breaking works of the 1960s, most notably The American Dream (1960), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1963), and the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Delicate Balance (1966), Albee's unsparing indictment of the American way of life earned him early distinction as the dramatist of his generation. His acclaim was enhanced further in the decades that followed with prize-winning dramas such as Seascape (1974) and Three Tall Women (1991), as well as recent works like The Play About the Baby (2001) and The Goat. (2002). Albee has brought the same critical force to his non-theatrical prose. Stretching My Mind collects for the first time ever the author's writings on theater, literature, and the political and cultural battlegrounds that have defined his career. Many of the selections were drawn from Albee's private papers, and almost all previously published material -- dating from 1960 to the present -- has never been reprinted. Topics include Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, Sam Shepherd, as well as autobiographical writings about Albee's life, work, and worldview.