|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Interview by Tina-Tara Petrova
Edward Albee is one of the most distinguished playwrights of our time
- from his critically acclaimed "Zoo Story " which opened in Berlin
in 1959 to "The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?" currently playing on Broadway.
Albee appeared in Toronto as the special guest of PEN, Poets, Essayists
and Novelists, Canada‘s playwright fundraising event. PEN promotes
freedom of expression for writers and artists.
Tina-Tara Petrova: If all the world is a stage, then what is the playwright’s role today?
Edward Albee: Well, the playwrights role is to hold up a mirror to people and to have them look into it, and if they don’t like what they see not to turn away - but to change.
TP: You are a native New Yorker, and were in New York that fateful day of Sept. 11th. How did that affect you?
EA: As a writer, I received about, I don’t know, 30 or 40 requests from people to write plays about 9/11, essays or even comments, and my response was the same then as it is now. I don’t know my feelings, how I feel, how my feeling will translate into a work of art. It’s too early- I don’t believe in instant response-I don’t believe in manufacturing instant response to things. Some things stay in my mind for several years before I reply to them.
I was in New York on the morning of 9/11 I got off the subway at Chamber Street moments after the second building was hit I saw both buildings aflame- I saw people falling out of the second building- it was horrifying. I didn’t know what had happened- it occurred to me that it may have been a plane, by accident, falling into the buildings. I was about 5 blocks north of the World Trade Center, so I went back to where I lived to make sure my building was not on fire and it wasn’t, so I turned on the television and discovered that the Pentagon had been attacked. I went up on my roof looking south and watched both towers collapse.
TP: Have your ideas of personal freedom as a human being and pathos been affected by 9/11?
EA: I would say they have been intensified- not changed, but intensified
TP: You currently have a show running on Broadway- The Goat or Who is Sylvia and The Occupant with Anne Bancroft closed off Broadway only recently were either of those plays written as a result of 9/11?
EA: No, they were not.
TP: Do you have an opinion about the impending war on Iraq and the current Bush administration’s strategies against terrorism?
EA: Yes, I certainly do. I remain appalled by the Bush Administration. I remain appalled by the curtailment of civil rights and human rights that these Republicans think they can get away with as a result of the attack on the US. I am not convinced yet that there is any justification for an attack on Iraq just as I am not convinced there is any justification against an attack on North Korea, or Iran or any country that has atomic weapons. I have no idea how many countries the President of the US plans to attack and in what order. I do know, that if it turns out that the Iraqis do not have any weapons of mass destruction that they are hiding, I suspect that the Bush administration will probably try to find a reason to invade anyway.
TP: Your play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf was adapted into a hit Hollywood movie starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. How was that experience?
EA: I don’t know why it turned out as well as it did. I think maybe the strengths and star power of Elizabeth Taylor and Burton, the ability to say "no" to people who had terrible ideasI kept on hearing horrible stories that the screenplay writer had changed the non-existent child into a real child who was heavily retarded. I’m told there were all sorts of terrible things written, -whether that’s true or not I don’t really know-but I’m told that there were changes made that Taylor, Burton and the director rejected.
TP: Has there been interest over the years in adapting any other of your works to the big screen.
EA: My play A Delicate Balance starring Katherine Hepburn and Paul Scoffield also went to the big screen, around 1970. There have been inquiries about a number of my plays, but I’ve been quite clear that if I’m not to do the screenplay myself, I’m not interested. I am clear that I want control of my work and final cut as well.
So, not too many people are approaching me anymore
TP: (laughs) I understand you teach playwriting.
EA: Yes, that’s correct. Spring Semester at the University of Houston. I also run a place in Montauk, NY where visual artists come and live and work for a month at a time.
TP: Edward, you have had a long and illustrious career both in and out of the spotlight, spanning the last four decades. What are your opinions about the function of a professional writer in today’s society? As a writer, what main responsibility do you feel towards your audience?
EA: To tell the truth and to expect them to be interested in the truth.
TP: Do you have any advice for our Canadian readers, living in the shadow of "big brother" USA and the possibility of being absorbed as the 51st. state?
EA: Canada should retain her own identity and personality as a country and don’t even start thinking of herself as an adjunct to the United States. We’d probably all be better off if you absorbed us.
 Top
|
|
|
|
|
|
