The American Dreamis an early, one-actplaybyAmericanplaywrightEdward Albee.It premiered in 1961.
| The American Dream | |
|---|---|
| Written by | Edward Albee |
| Date premiered | January 24, 1961 |
| Place premiered | York Playhouse (Off-Broadway) |
| Subject | TheAmerican Dream |
| Genre | Satire |
Productions
editThe play premieredOff-Broadwayon January 24, 1961 at the York Playhouse. The play was produced by Theatre 1961, which was formed byRichard Barrand Clinton Wilder. Directed byAlan Schneider,the cast featured John C. Becher (Daddy), Jane Hoffman (Mommy),Sudie Bond(Grandma), Nancy Cushman (Mrs. Barker), andBen Piazza(the Young Man).[1][2]
The play was presented Off-Broadway at theCherry Lane Theatrein September 1962 in a double bill withThe Zoo Story,directed by Schneider.[3]
The play was produced Off-Broadway at the Cherry Lane Theatre from March 23, 1964 to November 8, 1964, in a double bill withDutchmanby LeRoi Jones. Schneider directed, with the same cast as in 1961.[4]
The play was presented Off-Broadway at the Cherry Lane Theatre from April 1, 2008 to May 3, 2008 in a double bill withThe Sandbox.Directed by Albee, the cast featuredJudith Ivey(Mommy), George Bartenieff (Daddy), and Lois Markle (Grandma).[5][6][7]Kate Mulgrewtook over the role of Mommy on April 22, 2008,[8]but had to leave the show, causing it to close on May 3, 2008.[9]
Characters
edit- Mommy: Grandma's daughter and Daddy's commanding wife. She fulfills the stereotypical role of a housewife, and it is strongly suggested that she married Daddy for his money.
- Daddy: Mommy's submissive husband. It is suggested that he works a high-paying administrative job.
- Grandma: Mommy's mother. She is portrayed as the most intelligent character in the family, and is the only character to physically break thefourth wall.
- Mrs. Barker: Mommy's friend. Mrs. Barker is thecaricatureof the dim-witted socially responsible american housewife.
- The Young Man: Ostensibly an itinerant worker, The Young Man enters Mommy and Daddy's apartment looking for work and is accepted into their family.
Overview
editThe play, asatireon American family life, concerns a married couple and their elderly mother. On a particular day, they are visited by two guests who turn their worlds upside down.
The central family consists of a Mommy, a domineering wife, Daddy, an emasculated and submissive husband, and Grandma, the half-senile mother of Mommy. The play opens with the three of them discussing Mommy's day around a pile of boxes. An honorary member of the community and idol to Mommy, Mrs. Barker, enters and the dialogue continues with the occasional interjection by Grandma. Mommy and Daddy exit, leaving Mrs. Barker and Grandma alone. Grandma apparently knows why Mrs. Barker has been asked to come by and explains to her that Mommy and Daddy had adopted a son from her many years previously. As the parents objected to the child's actions, they mutilated it as punishment, eventually killing it. After Mrs. Barker exits, a Young Man appears at the door, looking for work. After hearing his life story, Grandma realizes that this Young Man, whom she dubs "The American Dream," is the twin of Mommy and Daddy's first child. As the first child was mutilated, he too suffered pain and has been left as an empty shell of a man. After seeing this Young Man as a way out, she moves her things and leaves. The Young Man is introduced to the family as a suitable replacement for the original child. The play ends with Mommy and Daddy celebrating the Young Man's arrival, with Grandma already forgotten.
Albee explores not only the falsity of theAmerican Dreambut also the status quo of the American family. As he states in the preface to the play, "It is an examination of the American Scene, an attack on the substitution of artificial for real values in our society, a condemnation of complacency, cruelty, emasculation, and vacuity; it is a stand against the fiction that everything in this slipping land of ours is peachy-keen."
Press notes state: "It is a ferocious, uproarious attack on the substitution of artificial for real values, a startling tale of murder and morality that rocks middle-class ethics to their complacent foundations. In it, Albee explores the hollowness of the American dream, as well as the fallacy of the ideal American family."[10]
Critical response
editDavid Finkle, in reviewing the 2008 production forTheaterMania,wrote that the play takes on Albee's "abiding theme: the stultifying American family....Mommy and Daddy are, to say the least, unsympathetic.... the major impression with which an Albee fan will leave is how solidly in place Albee's need was to work out his psychological knots as an adopted child -- and how strong that compulsion has remained for almost 50 years. It now seems almost an after-thought that he's made theatergoers everywhere the lucky beneficiaries of his obsessive search for psychic balm."[11]
The "New York Theatre Guide" reviewers wrote of the 2008 production: "Though hardly great theater, these one-acts give important insight into the budding playwright... Though 'American Dream' and 'Sandbox' are autobiographical, Albee is too complex a playwright to leave it there. He is not just trashing parents who didn't understand the unconventional young man they adopted, he is also trashing The American Dream, vilifying the people who took 'Father Knows Best,' 'Donna Reed,' and 'The Ozzie and Harriet Show' as their model for the best of all possible worlds... Taking our norms and turning them inside out and upside down is Albee's signature, and 'The American Dream' reminds us that we must constantly refine our own version of the American Dream before we eventually dive into the finality of the Sandbox."[12]
Hilton Als,inThe New Yorker,wrote about the play: "...is less about what happens than about how it happens—which, in the theatre, means how it’s said. Mommy and Daddy speak in rhythmic banalities. Greeting a guest named Mrs. Barker, Mommy asks, progressively, if she’d like a smoke, a drink, to cross her legs, and to remove her dress. Mrs. Barker responds to each inquiry in the same way: 'I don’t mind if I do.' Albee is showing us the trauma of repetition: the noxious glue that holds his married couples together, despite their rage—or because of it."[13]
Notes
edit- ^Albee, Edward. "Introduction",Edward Albee's The American Dream: The Sandbox; The Death of Bessie Smith; Fam and Yam,Dramatists Play Service, Inc., 2009,ISBN0822223910,p. 8
- ^"The American Dream / The Death of Bessie Smith (1961)".Internet Off-Broadway Database.RetrievedJune 23,2022.
- ^"The Zoo Story / The American Dream (1962)".Internet Off-Broadway Database.RetrievedJune 23,2022.
- ^"The American Dream / Dutchman (1964)".Internet Off-Broadway Database.RetrievedJune 23,2022.
- ^"Edward Albee's The American Dream and The Sandbox (2008)".Internet Off-Broadway Database.RetrievedJune 23,2022.
- ^Brantley, Ben (April 2, 2008)."A Double Bill of Plays, Both Heavy on the Bile".The New York Times.RetrievedJune 23,2022.
- ^Stasio, Marilyn (April 1, 2008)."The American Dream & the Sandbox".Variety.
- ^Gans, Andrew (April 8, 2008)."Mulgrew Will Succeed Ivey in Albee'sDreamandSandbox;Off-Broadway Run Extended ".Playbill.RetrievedJune 23,2022.
- ^Gans, Andrew (April 28, 2008)."Albee'sDreamandSandboxto Close May 3 ".Playbill.RetrievedJune 23,2022.
- ^Gans, Andrew (March 21, 2008)."Albee'sDreamandSandboxBegin Previews March 21 ".Playbill.RetrievedJune 23,2022.
- ^Finkle, David (April 1, 2008)."The American DreamandThe Sandbox".TheaterMania.
- ^Mehlman, Barbara; Manus, Geri (March 1, 2008)."Off-Broadway: The American Dream/The Sandbox".New York Theatre Guide.RetrievedJune 23,2022.
- ^Als, Hilton (November 24, 2014)."Just the Folks".The New Yorker.
References
edit- Albee, Edward.The American Dream and The Zoo Story: Two Plays by Edward Albee.New York: Plume Books, 1997.
- Popkin, Henry.Edward Albeein Gassner, John and Edward Quinn, ed.The Reader's Encyclopedia of World Drama.New York: Thomas Crowell and Co., 1969.
External links
edit
Media related toThe American Dream (play)at Wikimedia Commons