Mann Interviews Albee, Part II
Posted by Adam Immerwahr on October 22nd, 2007 Photo by T. Charles Erickson |
This is Part II (of IV) of McCarter Artistic Director Emily Mann’s interview with Playwright Edward Albee. Click here for Part I. When we last left this pair, Mann had asked Albee about when he started working on Me, Myself & I and what had prompted it. The conversation continued:
———————————–
Emily Mann: Um, let’s see, what else should we talk about? The tone of the play…
Edward Albee: Mm-hm. So, anyway, let’s finish the first bit… I don’t really know. Oh, I know what I do—I write them to find out why I’m writing them.
Mann: Of course.
Albee: And if anybody, while I’m writing a play, asks me, “what’s it about?”—I hate that question. There are only two answers. One is “two hours,” or “shut up, he explained.” Wonderful remark, by, uh, who was the writer? I’ll think of his name in a minute… I thought that was such a wonderful use of “explained.”
Mann: Who is that? You don’t know who that is?
Albee: I think it was Ring Lardner. Or Ring Lardner Jr., but I think it was the original Ring Lardner. “Shut up, he explained.” It’s lovely.
Mann: Liz McCann once said to me, “Edward gave me a book called Intellectual Vaudeville. I couldn’t read it, because it was too hard to read.” I said, “Well, it’s a great title,” and she said, “Yeah, you should ask him why he gave it to me.”
Albee: I don’t remember doing that.
Mann: You don’t remember doing that?
Albee: No.
Mann: So the term Intellectual Vaudeville is not…
Albee: And I gave her a book to read entitled Intellectual Vaudeville?
Mann: Yeah.
Albee: I must read it.
Mann: Don’t you think?
Albee: I should read it.
Mann: That’s what I felt, I said, “Will you please find it for me?”
Albee: Well, perhaps I have read it; I can never remember what I’ve read.
Mann: Does that term, I mean, do you like that…
Albee: There’s something vaguely familiar about the term.
Mann: Yeah. Well, it’s interesting to me, because on some level, after having spoken to you and to Tom Lynch that day, how much the whole idea of vaudeville became very much a part, part and parcel, of this piece. The kind of comedy… And a few of the elements, stylistically, have vaudeville elements.
Albee: There are things about this play that remind me of Candide, by the way.
Mann: Yes, exactly. And there are the vaudeville elements in Candide. Yeah, okay. So if you were asked, would you say that it’s a comedy? I would, but would you?
Albee: The definition of comedy, is people getting what they want. Tragedy is people getting what they deserve.
Mann: That’s right, that’s right. Okay.
Albee: I remember at the end of American Dream, when Grandma stops the action. I said, “We’d better not go any further, because the young man is about to find out that Mother had slaughtered his identical twin.” She stops the play at that point. “This is meant to be a comedy, we’d better stop now while everybody has what he wants, everybody has what he thinks he wants.” That’s a comedy, where everybody has what he wants, everybody has what he thinks he wants. Sure, that’s a comedy. I guess everybody [gets what he wants in Me, Myself & I]… But no, when you see the end of the play, the poor mother doesn’t get what she wants. But she doesn’t deserve it. Is it a comedy? I don’t know. I find those terms demeaning, and misinforming to audiences. “A comedy,” “a dark comedy”—that’s an appalling phrase, “a dark comedy,” as if they couldn’t afford lights. I’ve always thought that the whole thing would be done in somber shadows.
Mann: I’m so glad you’re saying this. It’s so hard—impossible—to deal with these labels.
Albee: It’s a play! Is Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf a comedy? Is it a tragedy? I don’t like these terms.
Mann: I know, I know.
Albee: So, avoid them. No, it is not a comedy, it is not a tragedy—it’s a play.
Mann: By you.
Albee: By me. Yes.
Mann: Good. Am I going to be surprised by this new ending?
Albee: I hope not. I hope you will find that it is inevitable.
Mann: Fantastic. As all endings should be, yes. Okay.
Albee: It continues making big Otto as nice as he was by the end of the previous scene. I’ve begun to sympathize with him. I’ve begun to like big Otto by the end of the previous scene.
Mann: Oh, me too.
Albee: In the sections where his brother… Well, you’ll find out something interesting about him in this last scene.
Mann: Okay…
Albee: I’m not going to tell you.
Mann: No, clearly. And I don’t want you to. I want to start reading and then get to it. Should I read it with the first act in front of it, or can I just read the second?
Albee: I don’t think you need to do that
Mann: Okay. Good, great.
End of Part II.
Part III of the Mann/Albee Interview is available here.
Posted by Adam Immerwahr, Producing Associate at McCarter Theatre. Photo: Edward Albee and Emily Mann on the set of the McCarter Theatre production of All Over.
