I've usually avoided reading plays - maybe b/c they seem incomplete as a reading experience. AND I've avoided reading Albee - maybe b/c I'm such a big Alfred Jarry enthusiast that reading any absurdist who came after him seems like a bit of a lesser experience. But I recently witnessed the Mike Nichols film version of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolff?" for the 1st time in a long time & damned if it wasn't just so damn good that I just can't ignore Albee anymore. As I tell in my review of August Wilson's "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom", ( http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/516792.Ma_Rainey_s_Black_Bottom ), I picked this up at the same time as the Wilson & read its "The Death of Bessie Smith" immediately following reading the Wilson.

Albee's "The Death of Bessie Smith" is a 1959 play based around the story that Bessie Smith died from car crash injuries when "whites only" hospitals refused to treat her. As such, it's an important play in the history of plays about racism. According to the Wikipedia entry on the play: "As widely believed, Bessie Smith did die following a car crash, but she was never refused admittance to a white hospital, which is the premise of Albee's play. She was taken directly to the Afro-American Hospital in Clarksdale, Mississippi, where she died some seven hours later. The myth of racial discrimination had its origin in an article by jazz writer/producer John Hammond, that appeared in the November 1937 issue of Down Beat." Of course, the point here might be that if she HAD been taken to a "whites only" hospital she probably wd have been denied treatment so the racism, despite the correction to the story, still remains the same. There even having been hospitals divided by race is despicable enuf. Anyway, it's a good play & has a rich cast of characters presenting a variety of viewpoints.

I read "The American Dream" next. My friend & neighbor (& creative writing prof) Mark studied w/ Albee. He told me that Albee was adopted by a rich theater couple & that he's gay. He also told me that alotof Albee's plays reference this. I don't know whether alotof of them do, but "The American Dream" sure does! One might get the impression that Albee hated his adopted parents. Dunno. At any rate, this play cd be called, to use the cliché, a 'scathing indictment' of the uncaring family. Personally, when I think of "families" I can't conjure up many positive images. I look at cats: the female gets in heat, the males come from miles around to inseminate her, they leave, the female gets pregnant, the kittens are born, the kittens are nurtured, they grow up & leave. I have to wonder whether there's any particular good reason for families to stay together.

"Fam & Yam": "Famous American Playwright" & "Young American Playwright". This is a short play - an established playwright gets taken advantage of by a young one - flattery & complacency & drunkenness let down his guard. Not as substantial as the other 2 plays but it gets its thrust across quickly & entertainingly. ( )