ME, MYSELF, AND I by Edward Albee

ME, MYSELF, AND I by Edward Albee
Produced at Playwright's Horizons
August 29, 2010

ME, MYSELF, AND I felt like an old-school Absurdist play, with lots of confusion, playing with language, and insecurity of identity. Identical twins, one named OTTO and the other named otto, are at odds when OTTO declares that otto does not exist. Whether this is because their mother cannot tell them apart and has had a doctor on a 28-year long house call, or because OTTO feels he needs to break free of his family, we don't know. This is the setting for a somewhat confusing play that could have been much funnier for me.

The play moves quickly, with the family group of OTTO, otto, Mother, and the doctor zooming through the first act. OTTO makes it clear to his mother and the doctor that otto is no longer his brother, and that he is going to make a big change in his life. This sets up the conflict between OTTO and the rest of his family. The second act is a bit crazier, with the addition of Maureen, otto's girlfriend, and gallops to a finale that truly tickled my sense of the absurd. The problems are somewhat sorted out, but can we be sure that characters who are so very conscious of being in a play can truly sort out their problems?

The actors were wonderful, with much applause to Zachary Booth for his portrayal of the snarky OTTO and Preston Sadleir who undergoes an existential crisis as otto. Both of these characters were the most interesting and complicated, and the actors did an excellent job. Though the other characters were not quite as fully fleshed, the actors made me believe in these people and this extremely absurd and possibly disturbed world that they lived in.

There was a lot of laughter in the theater, though I didn't laugh every minute. But THE HAPPY ENDING had me in hysterics, and is worth a little confusion about the play. I think it might need to be marketed as Theater of the Absurd, because I heard bewildered conversations during the intermission wondering what was going on! In the end, though not a traditional play as usually seen today, I think that ME, MYSELF, AND I succeeded as a modern Absurdist piece and would be enjoyed by fans of works in that genre, such as THE BALD SOPRANO, and Albee completists.