All Over

All Over is a play by Edward Albee, written in 1970, a few years after his most famous play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? This play, however, did not show the depth, character appeal, or connections that many of his other plays have. It was hard to read, and probably even harder to relate to onstage.

All Over, like many of Albee’s plays, takes place in one single space, a bedroom in an expensive home. At the start of the play, all the actors are onstage. We quickly learn that they are sitting and waiting for a man to die. The characters are only referred to by their relationship to this man: the Wife, the Mistress, the Daughter, the Son, the Best Friend, the Doctor, and the Nurse. We never learn their names, and we never find out the identity of the man, who is apparently a very rich and famous person. There is very little plot; the characters are merely waiting for this man to die, and as they wait they argue, complain and reminisce about their lives. The dialogue is almost like a series of monologues, interspersed with them arguing and complaining. As the play progresses, we get a better sense about how each person feels about the next, and how they feel about dealing with the issue of mortality; however, we never see these characters for who they truly are. Only at moments of outbursts and screaming do we see their true natures. The relationship between the Wife and her children is the most explored. We begin to understand how unhappy she has become as a wife and mother, and how her treatment of her children has caused them to be unappealing, angry, and weak as well. As the play closes, nothing has really changed since the beginning, save the Wife’s realization that she has only loved her husband and has wanted to be loved by him, and that this has made her unhappy: "All we've done…is think about ourselves. What will become of me?" The play ends with the Doctor entering and informing them of the man’s death, with no reaction from the characters.

I’m not sure if I liked this play. I liked the fact that I had to really pay attention to what the characters had to say in order to garner information. However, I did not like the fact that none of the characters were appealing or sympathetic. The most interesting character was the Wife, but she was a horrible person, and completely unfeeling. It would be interesting to see this performed onstage, but I feel like it would be a hard sell.