THE AMERICAN DREAM: Albee explores not only the falsity of the American Dream but also the American family’s status quo. As he states in the preface to the play, “[It is] an examination of the American Scene, an attack on the substitution of artificial for real values in our society, a condemnation of complacency, cruelty, emasculation, and vacuity; it is a stand against the fiction that everything in this slipping land of ours is peachy-keen.” THE SANDBOX: Beginning with brightest day, the Young Man is performing calisthenics (which he continues to do until the very end of the play) near a sandbox (or sandpit) at the beach. Mommy and Daddy have brought Grandma all the way out from the city and place her in the sandbox. As Mommy and Daddy wait nearby in some chairs, the Musician plays off and on, according to what the other characters instruct him to do. Throughout the play, the Young Man is very pleasant, greeting the other characters with a smile as he says, “Hi!”. As Mommy and Daddy cease to acknowledge Grandma while they wait, Grandma reverts from her childish behavior and begins to speak coherently to the audience. Grandma and the Young Man begin to converse with each other. Grandma feels comfortable talking with the Young Man as he treats her like a human being (whereas Mommy and Daddy imply through their actions and dialog that she is more of a chore that they must take care of). While still talking with the Young Man, she reminds someone off-stage that it should be nighttime by now. Once brightest day has become deepest night, Mommy and Daddy hear on-stage rumbling. Acknowledging that the sounds are literally coming from off-stage and not from thunder or breaking waves, Mommy knows that Grandma’s death is here. As daylight resumes, Mommy briefly weeps by the sandbox before quickly exiting with Daddy. Although Grandma, who is lying down half buried in sand, has continued to mock the mourning of Mommy and Daddy, she soon realizes that she can no longer move. It is at this moment that the Young Man finally stops performing his calisthenics and approaches Grandma and the sandbox. As he directs her to be still, he reveals that he is the angel of death and says, “…I am come for you.” Even though he says his line like a real amateur, Grandma compliments him and closes her eyes with a smile. LISTENING: Constructed with the precision of a musical composition, and described by Clive Barnes as “a chamber opera and a symbolic poem about communication,” the play juxtaposes three characters: The Man, The Woman, and The Girl — and sifts through the tangled relationship that they have evidently shared. The Man is amiable but distant; The Woman acerbic and bitter; The Girl is perhaps mad – a catatonic who has destroyed her own child. Elliptical in form and redolent with evocative overtones, the play weaves together its strands of conversation and soliloquy into a meaningful pattern of events – underscoring the inescapable fact that while we may listen we do not always hear, and our lives, for better or worse, are shaped accordingly. Advance purchase tickets are $10.00 (at the door $20; Seniors/Students $15.00). Special ticketing for Thursday nights: AT THE DOOR SALES ONLY $5.00 for all those under 30 (ID required).