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

The imbroglio or intrigue phase of the plot presents the arrival by post of a package containing £198 in Cooper and $4,900 in Albee, which leads to the husband's discovery of the wife's profession (Act Two in Cooper and Act One, Scene Two in Albee)

, and to a big celebration and party which reveals the fact that all the wives are involved in the business with the connivance of all the husbands,

1

9 who, when the police has found out about the brothel, cooperate with the madam in finding a no less lucrative but safer and more appropriate place (the bulk of Act Three in Cooper and of Act Two in Albee). The culmination or crisis point of the action comes when Jack, who knows too much and, when drunk, talks more than desirable, is murdered in the room and buried in the garden ("Everything in the Garden"). In Cooper's play it is Jenny whose warning "Don't let him go!"

2

0 triggers a series of unavoidable actions leading to Jack's death. In Albee's drama it is the madam's "Stop him"

2

1 which starts the fatal act. In Albee the conflict is sharper: it is in the madam's presence that Jack identifies Mrs Toothe as a brothel-keeper he knew in London, and her "He'll talk" is "a command",

22 just as her "You must make him be quiet" is the order of "a commander",

2

3 1

9 M. E. Rutenberg refers to "a similar operation blossoming in Long Island's suburbia {Edward Albee: Playwright in Protest, p. 175.), but he thinks that the dénouement in Albee's play is contrived in that "all of Jenny's friends turn out to be part of the same prostitution ring. Had Mrs Toothe given the party and invited Richard and Jenny, the ending would have been more convincing. It is simply too coincidental that every friend of Jenny's is a whore

—unless Jenny knew who the other members of the ring were and invited only them". Edward Albee: Playwright in Protest, pp. 175—6. Such coincidences, freaks of fortune, accidental events, however, are dramatic means of concentration and generalization. Without them neither Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet nor Gogol's The Inspector-General and Diirrenmatt's The Visit could have been written. Artistic plausibility differs from everyday probability. The same applies to "Jack's recognition of Mrs Toothe", which in M. E. Rutenberg's opinion is "too coincidental". Edward Albee: Playwright in Protest, p. 178. 2

0 G. Cooper, Everything in the Garden, p. 211. 2

1 E. Albee, Everything in the Garden, p. 183. 2

2 Ibid., p. 184. 2

3 Ibid., p. 185. 33