Edward Albee's "A Delicate Balance"

Sept. 8- Oct. 9; previews begin Sept. 2.

Aurora Theatre Company opens its 20th anniversary season with Albee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning brutal comedy of manners. The cast includes Aurora co-founder Ken Grantham, and the company’s first leading lady, Kimberly King; Aurora Artistic Director Tom Ross directs. Bay Area favorites Julia Brothers, Anne Darragh, Charles Dean, and Carrie Paff round out the ensemble.  

Arion Press in San Francisco will print a limited edition handcrafted book of Albee’s script for A DELICATE BALANCE to coincide with the production of the play. All copies will be numbered and signed by Albee. The edition will also feature original artwork by renowned California artist Tom Holland and a forward by former UC Berkeley journalism school dean David Littlejohn, now of The Wall Street Journal.

In A DELICATE BALANCE, Tobias and Agnes are a typical long-married couple living in the suburbs. With several bedrooms and a well-stocked liquor cabinet, their home provides a refuge of sorts, and a measure of comfort, to their friends and family. Over the course of two evenings however, the “delicate balance” of their uneasy existence begins to topple. Agnes’ alcoholic sister, Claire, has already set up camp, and when their adult daughter comes home after her fourth failed marriage, and lifelong friends Harry and Edna arrive on their doorstep, frightened and seeking sanctuary from an unnamed terror, the many well-mannered and well-masked feelings finally erupt. 

A DELICATE BALANCE premiered on Broadway in 1966, with a cast featuring Hume Cronyn as Tobias and Jessica Tandy as Agnes. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1967, the first of three Pulitzers Albee received for his work.