A Delicate Balance(picture response)

There’s a beautiful Broadway production of this going on right now with Glenn Close as Agnes, so I’m going to use some pictures from this!

Here’s a few pictures of John Lithgow as Tobias, Glenn Close as Agnes, and Lindsey Duncan as Claire. I chose these specific pictures from the gallery, because I think the highlight and show off the set very well. Look at the detail there! It’s not a huge set, from what I can see of the pictures, but even just the intricacy of the fireplace and that shelf of knick-knacks behind Tobias lends such a weight and a gravity to the set. I also like how muted the lighting appears to be, there are no really bright tones or colors here.

This picture I chose because Claire is my favorite character in this entire play. I feel like this is what I’ll be when I’m fifty (I’m kidding, hopefully), and I feel that this picture just really sums up who Claire is as a character, her loneliness, her alcoholism (notice how conveniently the alcohol cabinet is placed directly behind her), and the lighting here is just gorgeous, it lends almost a solitary feeling to the set.

I don’t know quite for certain, but I’m assuming this picture is taken at the end of the play, when Agnes enters her final introspection about sleep, and the nature of darkness. This picture is amazing because first of all, look at Glenn Close. That night gown/robe is a thing of beauty, and I love that she just has a cardigan tied around her shoulders. Secondly, the lighting has shifted slightly, and if you look at the windows behind her you can see that the light looks like it’s brightening to day, like the sun is rising. I think that’s a perfect note to end the play on.

As a side note, this only runs through February 22nd, and I am very disappointed, because I 100% would have gone to see it in New York if it had still been running then.

As to why I think the play won a Pulitzer, I think that, even though it’s an older play (reflected most in the language, I think) there are so many universalities and common themes that an older audience especially could connect to. There are huge themes of loss, and the fear of loss that comes with old age. Agnes worries that she will lose her mind in her old age, and fears for who will take care of the house if that happens. She has to maintain a delicate balance, perhaps the very same delicate balance that titles the play, in not only her household but in her mind, closing herself off from the reality of her emotional state, and the very real and present adult fear of the death of her son, which may, again, hit home with an older audience. There are also huge themes of using alcohol to hide or escape from the reality of your life. You could almost call alcohol a main character in this play, so much of it revolves around the bar, and the gin, and the anisette. You saw the liqueur cabinet in the pictures above. I think there are just huge amounts of very real, ever present adult fears here in this play that would connect strongly. I don’t so much know if this play is for my age group, I enjoyed reading this play and I would go see it, but I just cannot

empathize as much with this characters and their situations, and I have not personally experienced any of their struggles. That’s fine though, I highly doubt that this play was targeted towards my age group anyway.

Pulitzer Questions

1. Zona Gale in 1921 for Miss Lulu Bett.2. The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence, and Fun Home (FUN

HOME!!!!!! FUN HOME LOOKS AMAZING!!!!!!)3. The play has to be by an American author.4. April 14th.