Three Tall Women
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Three Tall Women is a play by Edward Albee. It won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
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[edit] Characters
A: An old, senile woman in her 90s. She is very wealthy and suffers minorly from Alzheimer's disease.
B: A 52 year old woman. She is the hired caretaker for A. She is markedly cynical about life. Doesn't much enjoy working for A, but learns much from her.
C: A a 26 year old woman. She is here on behalf of a A's law firm because A has neglected paperwork, payment, etc. She is "out of the loop" and is often picked on by A and B.
[edit] Plot summary
[edit] Act One
The play opens with the three major characters together in A's bedroom. Throughout the scene A does most of the talking; she frequently reminisces and tells stories about her life as a younger woman. B humors her (probably because she is paid) in addition with helping her do everyday things that are now very difficult for her to do alone (go to the bathroom, sit down, go to bed, etc). C, while occasionally getting a word in edgewise about the duties she is there to accomplish, usually is deterred because of the ease by which A goes into longwinded storytelling. C often scrutinizes over the contradictory and nonsensical statements made by A, but is discouraged by B who is clearly used to A and her habits. Act one ends when A has a stroke in the middle of one of her stories.
[edit] Act Two
The play picks up with a mannequin of A lying in a bed. A, B, and C are no longer the separate entities of act one, but representations of A at different times in her life (the ages corresponding to the A, B, and C of act one). Most of the act involves each of the time-states talking and relating to each other. Since the A, B, and C of this act are all very cohesive (unlike the senile A of act one), the audience gets a much clearer insight into this woman's past.
At one point the woman's son comes in to sit by the mannequin. The time-states B and A (which are invisible to him) are not happy to see him because of the great deal of tension between them (which is explored in the play itself. C is none the wiser because she is from too early in the woman's life to know about her marriage and son). He says nothing throughout, and leaves before the end of the play.
The play ends with a debate between A, B, and C about the happiest moment in their life. A has the last word, with "That's the happiest moment. When it's all done. When we stop. When we can stop."
| Plays by Edward Albee | |
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The Zoo Story | The Death of Bessie Smith | The Sandbox | Fam and Yam | The American Dream | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? | The Ballad of the Sad Cafe | Tiny Alice | Malcolm | A Delicate Balance | Everything in the Garden | Box | Sandbox | All Over | Seascape | Listening | Counting the Ways | The Lady From Dubuque | Lolita | The Man Who Had Three Arms | Finding the Sun | Marriage Play | Three Tall Women | The Lorca Play | Fragments | The Play About the Baby | The Goat, or, Who is Sylvia? | Occupant | Peter & Jerry |
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