"Albee's perversely funny sendup of a standard mid-life crisis drama ... dares to suggest that even the most flawed and confused human beings deserve compassionate understanding, and the failure to proffer it is a species of bestiality far more abhorrent than the sexual kind." Variety On his 50th birthday, Martin, a world-famous architect prepares for a recorded interview by an old friend in the TV business; but in the course of the conversation a secret emerges that threatens to turn celebration to tragedy. Edward Albee's black comedy offers a fascinating look at the limits liberal society can be pushed to, and asks the audience to question their beliefs, to examine their own bigoted views and reconsider their judgement of matters that may or may not be considered socially taboo. Winner of the 2002 Tony Award for Best Play, The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? is a hugely enjoyable parable that plumbs the deepest questions of social constraints on the individual expression of love. This Modern Classics edition features a new introduction by Toby Zinman.

A collection of some of Edward Albee's earliest and most acclaimed works.

Edward Albee

Full Length, Drama

Characters: 2 male, 4 female

Interior Set

This Pulitzer Prize winner enjoyed a stunning Broadway revival in 1996 with George Gizzard, Rosemary Harris and Elaine Stritch. Wealthy middle-aged couple, Agnes and Tobias have their complacency shattered when Harry and Edna, longtime friends 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' household.

Winner of the 1996 Drama Desk and Award, Best Revival.

"Powerful...A beautiful play filled with humor and compassion, and touched with poetry...[with] the stature and eloquence of a classic."-New York Daily News

"A brilliant play."-New York Post

"An evening of theatrical fireworks."-The New York Times

Characters: 1m, 1f / Dramatic Comedy Unapologetically flamboyant, New York sculptor Louise Nevelson's life was one marked by intrepid artistic triumphs as well as deep inner turmoil. In Edward Albee's Occupant, both her public accomplishments and private emotional conflicts are thoroughly examined by an unnamed interviewer who questions the posthumous Nevelson with an unabashed scrutiny. From her unique vantage point beyond the grave, Nevelson answers his queries with a clarity born of the distance provided by death. The result is a touching, humorous, and honest tribute to a woman who was a pioneer for free-thinking females everywhere, but also stood strongly on her own as one of the 20th century's greatest artistic minds. Edward Albee's Occupant is a testament of will, internal strength, and the cryptic force that continues to drive great artists. "The play also touches on themes that echo throughout Mr. Albee's work: the unreliability of memory, the chimerical nature of language and particularly the alchemical brew of "truth and illusion" (to borrow a much-used pair of words from "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?") by which people define themselves."-The New York Times

Middle-aged history professor George, and his wife Martha, are joined by another college couple. The result is an all-night drinking session that erupts into a nightmare of revelations

"Twelve times a week," answered Uta Hagen, when asked how often she'd like to play Martha in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" Like her, neither audiences nor critics could get enough of Edward Albee's masterful play. A dark comedy, it portrays husband and wife George and Martha in a searing night of dangerous fun and games. By the evening's end, a stunning, almost unbearable revelation provides a climax that has shocked audiences for years. With the play's razor-sharp dialogue and the stripping away of social pretense, "Newsweek" rightly foresaw "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" as "a brilliantly original work of art-an excoriating theatrical experience, surging with shocks of recognition and dramatic fire [that] will be igniting Broadway for some time to come."

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof first heated up Broadway in 1955 with its gothic American story of brothers vying for their dying father's inheritance amid a whirlwind of sexuality, untethered in the person of Maggie the Cat. The play also daringly showcased the burden of sexuality repressed in the agony of her husband, Brick Pollitt. In spite of the public controversy Cat stirred up, it was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the Drama Critics Circle Award for that year. Williams, as he so often did with his plays, rewrote Cat on a Hot Tin Roof for many years-the present version was originally produced at the American Shakespeare Festival in 1974 with all the changes that made Williams finally declare the text to be definitive, and was most recently produced on Broadway in the 2003-04 season. This definitive edition also includes Williams' essay "Person-to-Person," Williams' notes on the various endings, and a short chronology of the author's life. One of America's greatest living playwrights, as well as a friend and colleague of Williams, Edward Albee has written a concise introduction to the play from a playwright's perspective, examining the candor, sensuality, power, and impact of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof then and now.

Brings readers up to date with one of the most varied and brilliant periods in the career of a true American master playwright, including his most influential and iconoclastic plays to date.

A classic work that has charmed generations of readers, this collection assembles Carson McCullers's best stories, including her beloved novella "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe." A haunting tale of a human triangle that culminates in an astonishing brawl, the novella introduces readers to Miss Amelia, a formidable southern woman whose cafe serves as the town's gathering place. Among other fine works, the collection also includes "Wunderkind," McCullers's first published story written when she was only seventeen about a musical prodigy who suddenly realizes she will not go on to become a great pianist. Newly reset and available for the first time in a handsome trade paperback edition, The Ballad of the Sad Cafe is a brilliant study of love and longing from one of the South's finest writers.

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 provocative, unsparing indictment of the American way of life earned him early distinction as the dramatist of his generation. His acclaim was enhanced even further in the decades that followed with prize-winning dramas such as Seascape and Three Tall Women, as well as recent works like The Play About the Baby and Who is Sylvia? 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.

George, a disillusioned academic, and Martha, his caustic wife, have just come home from a faculty party. When a handsome young professor and his mousy wife stop by for a nightcap, an innocent night of fun and games quickly turns dark and dangerous. Long-buried resentment and rage are unleashed as George and Martha turn their rapier-sharp wits against each other, using their guests as pawns in their verbal sparring. By night's end, the secrets of both couples are uncovered and the lies they cling to are exposed. Considered by many to be Albee's masterpiece, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a "brilliantly original work of art -- an excoriating theatrical experience, surging with shocks of recognition and dramatic fire" (Newsweek).

Estrenda en Broadway en 1962 cosecho un gran exito de critica y publico. Albee disecciona en ella dos matrimonios para contar las mentiras en las que se basan. La conclusion es que el engano no es solo un problema individual, sino un mal nacional.

Neil Wechsler's "Grenadine" has been chosen as the second winner of the Yale Drama Series. The play was selected by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and contest judge Edward Albee. "Grenadine "is the fantastical story of a man's quest for love in the company of three devoted friends. Albee writes, "I found it highly original. . . . The questions the play asks and the answers it proposes are provocative; the play stretched my mind." About the Yale Drama SeriesYale University Press, the Yale Repertory Theatre, and the David Charles Horn Foundation are proud co-sponsors of this major competition to support emerging playwrights. Each year's winner receives the David C. Horn Prize of $10,000, publication of the manuscript by Yale University Press, and a staged reading at Yale Repertory Theatre. For more information and complete rules for the Yale Drama Series, visit yalebooks.com.

Winner of the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for best play, as well as a number of other prestigious awards, Three Tall Woman has been called Albee's finest achievement. In his triumphant return to the New York and London stages, Albee demonstrates insight and vision with a moving look at mortality. "Stunning . . . nuanced and breathtaking".--Time.