342
PARTISAN REVIEW
abandonment by his biological parents . This shift in responsibility finds
a parallel in Albee's art: in
Who 's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
George and
Martha kill off their imaginary son just prior to his twenty-first birth–
day.
The theme of self-martyrdom is the key to understanding Albee's
career. Following his initial rocket-like ascent, Albee was in the enviable
position of producing plays "without undue concern about what the
public and critical reception might be." There's the rub. Prosperous and
acclaimed, Albee set out to please no one but himself, and succeeded. "I
always felt he had ascended up to his cerebral cortex for protection after
Virginia Woolf,"
Glyn O'Malley, Albee's assistant director, tells Gus–
sow. The composer William flanagan-Albee's former beau-expressed
concern early on that Albee was indulging in "a reactive, perverse,
masochistic high-browism." And Guy Flatley, writing in
The New York
Times,
summed up the consensus of the professional critics by dismiss–
ing
Tiny Alice
and subsequent works as "inscrutable puzzles, or painful
put-ons."
"I write for me," Albee told an interviewer in
1963.
"For the audi–
ence of me.
If
other people come along for the ride then it's great." But
when other people didn't come along, Albee lashed out, berating the
critics for their stupidity and ridiculing the public for its laziness. Gus–
sow includes a series of anecdotes about esteemed actors- Jessica
Tandy, Maureen Stapleton, John Gielgud, Ingrid Bergman- who
declined parts in Albee projects or trudged through them with little
understanding of or appreciation for the writing. Part of the problem
may have been the playwright's intellect and his refusal to pander, but
these were not novice performers lacking theater savvy. Clearly, some–
thing was amiss.
It's possible Albee chose the form, style, and content of his plays with
no regard for the audience, but it's also possible he regarded audience
members too closely and set out deliberately to displease them, like a
schoolboy cutting classes to spite his parents. In defense of his general
brattiness as a youth, Albee has commented, "I think that any kid who
has any intelligence, any individuality, has a responsibility to rebel
against everything."
Everything?
"Rebellion turns into questioning. I
question everything." Just months after
Who 's Afraid of Virginia
Woolf?
secured his position in the theater world, Albee announced he
was working on a new play, an early version of
The Lady from
Dubuque .
"I think it's going to be-I hope it will be-just about
unbearable," he commented. From Albee, that's a promise.
