Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1993. [Vol. 1.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 21)

STUDIES - Péter Egri: From the British Grotesque To the American Absurd: the Dramatist's Dilemma

A comparative close reading of Cooper's and Albee's versions may show that the American dramatist has not only transplanted but has also considerably transformed the British playwright's work. In composing his American variations on a British theme, Albee has also achieved a thoroughgoing reinterpretation of his model. His transformation of the original

—despite parallel details of incident and accident

—affects not only external circumstances but also internal qualities: the very focus and form of the play. His Americanization is, in fact, a reassessment. He has kept the framework of his model

—as he has in his dramatizations of Carson McCullers's novella The Ballad of the Sad Café (1963), James Purdy's novel Malcolm (1965) or Vladimir Nabokov's novel Ijjlita (1980—81)

5—but his idiosyncratic fingerprint is nowhere more recognizable than in retouching and reshaping Cooper's Everything in the Garden

, where Albee did not have to leave his own dramatic medium, and so he could use directly his own theatrical experience ranging from The Zoo Story (1958), The Death of Bessie Smith (1959) and The Sandbox (1959) to The American Dream (1960), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1961—62), Tiny Alice (1964) and A Delicate Balance (1966). Though no part of the oeuvre of a world-famous dramatist, Cooper's Everything in the Garden is more than a mere springboard for Albee; it is, in fact, a remarkable play in its own right. It was first presented by the Royal Shakespeare Theatre Company at the Arts Theatre in London on 13 March 1962; and it was shown by Michael Codron at the Duke of York's Theatre in London on 16 May 1962. First performed at Plymouth Theatre in New York City on 16 November 1967, and published in 1968, Albee's version was not only based on Cooper's play but it was also dedicated to the memory of the British playwright. The printed acknowledgement is not simply a statement 5 The place of Albee's theatrical adaptations and dramatic remouldings in his oeuvre has been analysed in: C. W. E. Bigsby, Albee (Edinburgh, 1969), pp. 71—95; R. E. Amacher, Edward Albee (New York, 1969), pp. 109—29; R. Hayman, Edward Albee (London, 1971), pp. 45—51, 64—7, 80—4; C. W. E. Bigsby, A Critical Introduction to Twentieth-Century American Drama 2: Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Edward Albee (Cambridge, 1986), pp. 278—9, 287—9. 26