Exactly what it says it's about

Hello.

I've been continuing my journer into Edward Albee's late career. This next play sounded at first like it might be a metaphor, or a simile, or ... hyperbole? Something. I didn't think it would be about what the title says. But it's exactly like what the title says. I happily present my next little review of...

"The Man Who Had Three Arms"

by Edward Albee

(Ok, this is not the cover art, I couldn't find any. But I thought this was kind of approriate. Kind of.)

Our play takes place on a stage where a Man and a Woman are starting up a lecture. They are disappointed to announce that none of the original speakers could make it there tonight so the best they could get on such short notice is a man who needs no introduction --

And, indeed, who does not get one, as he struts out into the stage and begins bombarding the audience with his story.

In Act 1 we don't actually find out too much besides what we can deduct. We know at one point this man had three arms, but we can obviously see he doesn't have that any more. He establishes himself as a has-been celebrity, but is still doing lectures and telling his story despite the fact that no one really cares about him since he became "normal" again. It isn't until Act 2 that we really start to find out what happened.

At one point in this adult man's life ("Himself" as his character is named in the script) he grew a third arm. Just grew it. Started out as a tiny, tiny little hand with tiny, tiny, tiny little fingers and then sprouted out from there. And then his life of celebrity burst forth into full glory, where he met everyone who's anyone from the President to the Pope. And then, as quickly as it had grew, it shrank.

I'm not going to tell you where he grew the third arm because he waits to tell you that, which creates a lot of suspense that I don't want to ruin for you if you decide to read it.

The Man and Woman play parts as other characters in his story as he lectures about it. As soon as they get done playing the wife, or the doctor, etc, they're back in their seats off to the side as the nervous mediators to this "group" or "club" that the audience is supposed to represent. Are they aware of their transformations? Are their transformations real? Do they play these 'parts' so that the play wasn't just one guy up there telling his story of rags-to-riches-to-rags again? I'm not %100 sure yet but I think yes.

It's hilarious. It's witty. And if I hadn't read the author's intro I would have a hard time finding its meaning. But what Albee says the play is about is critics and how ridiculous their role in society can be. How they can raise up someone to god-like status and just as easily destroy them. He's an incredible playwright for making the message interesting without taking it literally. Can you imagine how boring it would be if the play was about a writer who made it big because of the critics, then they tore him down and he was nothing again? Lame! But a story about a man who gets famous because of a third arm? Genius!

And the ending. The ending!  I haven't been so happy about an ending in a long time. Wonderfully written from start to finish. A rarely read or even heard of gem from one of the best playwrights in the modern age.

If your experience with Albee stops at "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" you're missing out on a lot.

And you can take that to the bank!

(hah! get it? 'cause I work at a bank? I make myself lol.)

Cheers,
Corbin