Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2002. Vol. 8. Eger Journal of American Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 28)
Studies - Réka Cristian: Edward Albee's Castings
The child (son) is the major theme that the playwright presents in his dramas. Albee's 1997 drama culminates in this regard and it is entitled he Play About the Baby 5 . In the same context of filiation the made clear, since Frankié was a horsewoman and Albee said thai this scene was his literary wish fulfillment The silent Young Man of the play is described by the character C. She is the contemplative character of the drama and the younger version of the characters of B and A,. In act two C describes the Young Man as "how nice, how handsome, how very...". The sentence is not finished, nor the description finalized and the image of the Young Man ends in silence. A (and B) cannot forgive the Young Man. They are hostile towards him because of his homosexuality, a way of loving which they could never accept, and, accordingly tabooed the subject. A proof of the banished topic of homosexuality is the repressed figure of the Young Man, who is a self-portrait of Albee in the play. He does not talk, in fact he does not utter a sound. His presence is only physical not verbal. The figure of the Young Man appears also in The American Dream and in The Sandbox , as Teddy in A Delicate Balance, as Fergus in Finding the Sun , as YAM in FAM and YAM. In Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf he is the enigmatic character, the fictional son of Martha and George. These love-hate games are encoded mostly by the relationship of the playwright with his mother and the maternal grandmother. The figure of Frances (Frankié) Albee is one that practically haunts all Albee's plots. Present as the character of Frankié ^lbee ' n Three Tall Women , she is Mommy in The Sandbox and in The American Dream , Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Agnes in A Delicate Balance , the Wife in All Over , She in Counting the Ways, and Edmee in Finding the Sun. The most sympathetic character, however remains that of Grandma, which appears in The American Dream and Sandbox. The Sandbox is Albee's other memory play. It was written for and about Edward Albee's maternal Grandma Cotter, "his closest relative" with whom he formed a lasting and profound attachment. "A crotchety and very amusing woman", she made Edward 's life easier and brighter by being as Mel Gussow describes her in the YAM chapter of the playwright's biography, "a natural ally against his mother". The estranged parents did not tell Edward Albee of her death in 1959 so he missed her funeral. Later he metonymically transposed his personal good-bye into a "brief play, in memory of my grandmother". William Flanagan Edward Albee's mentor and companion provided the play's music for this very personal farewell. The Young Man ("good-looking, well built") is converted into the real son-like Angel of Death that gives Grandma the final tender touch: "The Young Man bends over, kisses Grandma gently on her forehead." Edward Albee The Sandbox. The Death of Bessie Smith (with FAM and YAM) (New York: Signet, 1960), 20. ' Albee's play entitled The Play About the Baby (1998) starts with a baby's first cry in the wold. A young couple wants to take away the baby but the Man and the Woman (as the biological parents) try to convince the young couple that the baby never existed. Finally the blanketed "baby bundle" was thrown into the air. "The 137
