The title character of Edward Albee's 1961 surreal one-act The American Dream -- a young, virile but seemingly vacuous young man -- says in his speech toward the end of the play that he was born with an identical twin from whom he was separated at birth.
"We were torn apart, thrown to opposite ends of the continent. I don't know what became of my brother ... the rest of myself ... except that, from time to time, in the years that have passed, I have suffered losses ... that I can't explain. A fall from grace ... a departure of innocence ... loss ... loss. How can I put it to you? All right, like this: Once ... it was as if all at once my heart ... became numb .. almost as though I ... almost as though ... just like that ... it had been wrenched from my body ... and from that time I have been unable to love. Once ... I was asleep at the time I ... I awoke, and my eyes were burning. And since that time I have been unable to see anything, anything, with pity, with affection ... with anything but ... cool disinterest."
A year later Albee would publish his brutal evisceration of American marital norms and conventions in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Albee (1928-2016) won three Pulitizers for Drama.
No comments:
Post a Comment