Until 28 April, the Teatro Fernán Gómez. Centro Cultural de la Villa de Madrid presents Un delicado equilibrio (A Delicate Balance), by Edward Albee, a masterful reflection on uncertainty in contemporary society.
Alicia Borrachero, Ben Temple, Manuela Velasco, Cristina de Inza, Anna Moliner and Joan Bentallé star in this play directed by Nelson Valente.
More than half a century after its creation, this play seems to address themes that resonate in other works of its field and genre, and even in the author’s repertoire. A delicate balance seems to dive into the crisis of the Western, especially American, social world, but, above all, explores the loss of the sense of ‘security’. We construct signs and structures that give us the illusion of the safe, the concrete and the reliable, while we watch that very reality vanish before our eyes. Time slips through our fingers like sand, old age advances relentlessly and guilt rises triumphantly. The current reality of the world fits perfectly with the underlying unease presented by A Delicate Balance. Everything that once ensured stability no longer does; every foundation on which we have built our lives is shaken.
The play tells how Agnes and Tobias, a wealthy middle-aged couple, find their complacency shattered when their lifelong friends Harry and Edna turn up on their doorstep. Claiming that an unnamed, encroaching ‘fear’ has forced them from their own home, these neighbours bring a storm of doubt, recrimination and, ultimately, comfort, upsetting the ‘delicate balance’ of Agnes and Tobias’s household. A tense and turbulent play that puts family relationships and friendships under the microscope, it was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1967. Tickets can be purchased at this link.
