A Delicate Balance
Edward Albee
 The play opens with Agnes, a brutal, scathing, upper class woman in her late 50’s, discussing the possibility of suddenly and quite easily losing her mind. When Tobias reassures Agnes that “we will all go mad before you,” Agnes admits that she could not really go mad because she needs to take care of him. Agnes exclaims that although she is astonished by her own thoughts of madness, it is her sister, Claire, who lives with them, who astonishes her the most. Claire appears and apologizes to Agnes that her own nature is such to bring out in her sister the full force of her brutality. This inspires a diatribe from Agnes concerning Claire’s lifestyle, namely, her alcoholism. Claire senses that Tobias and Agnes’s daughter Julia might be going on her fourth divorce and predicts that Julia will be coming home shortly. Agnes reenters, announcing that Julia is coming home. Tobias then tells the story of a cat that he once had that he had put to sleep because the cat stopped liking him. There is a knock on the door, and Harry and Edna, Agnes and Tobias’s best friends, ask if they can stay there. They have been frightened by something intangible and do not want to return to their own home. Act II opens with Agnes and Julia discussing the fact that Harry and Edna are occupying Julia’s old bedroom. Harry and Edna have spent the entire day in the room, not coming out even for meals. Julia whines to Tobias next about not having her room. Tobias discredits Julia for all the broken marriages that she has accumulated. There is mention of Julia’s brother who died while still young. Claire enters and chides Julia about her new divorce and about constantly returning home. Julia teases Claire back about her drinking. When asked if she knows what is going on with Harry and Edna, Agnes tells them that she knocked on the door but was too embarrassed, irritated, and apprehensive to pursue the matter. After asking Tobias for a drink, she announces that “there is no point in pressing” the issue of Harry and Edna. At the end of scene 1, Harry and Edna appear with their coats over their arms. They announce they are going home but will return with their suitcases. Scene ii opens with Julia and Agnes alone after dinner. Julia is disgusted with her mother’s desire to control everyone’s conversations and emotions. Agnes retorts, “There is a balance to be maintained . . . and I must be the fulcrum.” Agnes and Tobias leave to help Harry and Edna unload their suitcases from their car. Edna enters and tells Julia that it is time for her to grow up. Julia reminds Edna that she is a guest in the house, to which Edna responds that she and Harry are Agnes and Tobias’s best friends. When Harry enters, he goes to fix everyone a drink at the bar. Julia blocks him from the bar and insists that he stay away from it. Julia yells “I WANT . . . WHAT IS MINE!” and leaves the room. Agnes reminisces about the death of her son, “an unreal time.” She suspects that Tobias has been unfaithful, and asks Harry and Claire to confirm it, but they both deny it. After Tobias attempts to excuse Julia as being in hysterics, Julia reappears with a gun in her hand. She insists that Harry and Edna leave. Edna declares, “We have rights here. We belong,” and insists that she and Harry are staying there forever, “if need be.” Tobias has stayed up all night, and is making himself a morning cocktail. Agnes comes down from her room. She tells Tobias that it is his role to make all the decisions with regards to what to do about Edna and Harry. She reminds Tobias of the time when he prevented her from getting pregnant after the death of their son. Claire, Julia, Tobias, and Agnes all discuss their versions of why Harry and Edna are there and what they should do about it. Harry and Edna join them, and everyone in the room is drinking, despite the early hour of the morning. Edna announces that Harry wants to talk to Tobias alone, and the women exit. Harry tells Tobias that if the circumstances were reversed, he and Edna don’t think they would allow Tobias and Agnes to live at their house, in spite of the fact that they are best friends. Harry asks Tobias, “You don’t want us, do you, Toby?” Tobias delivers what the author refers to in the script notes as Tobias’s “aria.” Tobias answers that he does not really want Harry and Edna to stay there but that because they are friends, Harry and Edna have the right to be there. He goes with Harry to get their suitcases and put them back in their car. Agnes says to Edna, “Everything becomes… too late, finally.” The play ends on Agnes’s rumination that people sleep at night because they are afraid of the dark: “They say we sleep to let the demons out—to let the mind go raving mad…And when the daylight comes again... comes order with it.”