A Delicate Balance (play)

A Delicate Balance
Broadway revival poster by James McMullan
Written by	Edward Albee
Characters	Agnes Tobias Claire Edna Harry Julia
Date premiered	September 22, 1966
Place premiered	Martin Beck Theatre New York City
Original language	English
Subject	Dysfunction in suburbia
Genre	Drama
Setting	An upper-middle-class home

A Delicate Balance is a three-act play by Edward Albee, written in 1965 and 1966.^[1] Premiered in 1966, it won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1967, the first of three he received for his work.

The uneasy existence of upper-middle-class suburbanites Agnes and Tobias and their permanent houseguest, Agnes's witty and alcoholic sister Claire, is disrupted by the sudden appearance of lifelong family friends Harry and Edna, fellow empty nesters with free-floating anxiety, who ask to stay with them to escape an unnamed terror. They soon are followed by Agnes and Tobias's bitter 36-year-old daughter Julia, who returns home following the collapse of her fourth marriage.