American Voices-Kathleen Chalfant: I admire Albee’s writing deeply. There is never a false word. Albee’s language carries an actor rather than the other way around. His language is the roadmap which leads me, the actor, into the world of the play. The characters in A Delicate Balance know one another so completely, that they don’t surprise one another with new information so much as continually challenge one another by revealing the already known truths of their lives and relationships. It is these truths that are dangerous. I feel the tension of the play is created by asking just how much truth can we take? In this classic American work, Albee has written an exquisite and timeless play that explores the thing we most fear—the unspeakable.
One of the American Theater’s most celebrated actors, Kathleen ’s Broadway credits include Wit and Angels in America.
searing modern drama
by Edward Albee
directed by Pam MacKinnon
February 6 through March 15, 2009
in Crystal City
Sponsored by Joan and David Maxwell
Meet Agnes and Tobias, a retired married couple living in a suburban neighborhood with Claire, Agnes’s alcoholic sister. When the couple’s adult daughter comes home after her fourth failed marriage and two friends move in unexpectedly, the “delicate balance” of their family life begins to topple.
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As bitter family rivalries play out over two evenings’ cocktails, Albee’s sharp and witty dialogue cuts straight to the heart. Agnes and Tobias are challenged to the core in this moving, caustically funny masterpiece hailed as “an evening of theatrical fireworks” by The New York Times. Winner of the 1967 Pulitzer Prize, A Delicate Balance further established Albee as a giant of the American Theater. Two extraordinary actresses, Kathleen Chalfant > (Broadway’s Wit, Angels in America) and Ellen McLaughlin > (Broadway’s Angels in America), will star in this seminal work filled with intelligent social commentary from one of our greatest living playwrights.
One of the American Theater’s most celebrated actors, Kathleen ’s Broadway credits include Wit and Angels in America.
