Strange Visitors

Edward Albee's plays have been a recurring event in 2009, with Clayton Community Theatre doing "Finding the Sun" and Stray Dog Theatre currently presenting Everything in the Garden. And Muddy Waters Theatre, which devotes each season to the works of one playwright, has selected Albee for this season's honor. A Pulitzer Prize winner, Albee's also had his less successful moments, The Lady from Dubuque being one of them. With only a bare dozen performances during its initial Broadway run, this is a play that few people have seen — and now we can count ourselves among that number, thanks to Muddy Waters. Jo and her husband, Sam, host a party for two other couples; dying of cancer, Jo takes advantage of the gathering to scorn and humiliate these friends while Sam attempts to lead the group through party games. The party mercifully breaks up, the battered guests seek comfort in their rooms, and a new couple appears. The woman is fashionably dressed, and she claims to be Jo's mother come all the way from Dubuque to be with her in her time of dying — despite her looking nothing like Jo's mother. Unsettling, caustic and prickly, the play definitely has that Albee flair. Muddy Waters Theatre performs The Lady from Dubuque at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday (June 12 through 28) at the Kranzberg Arts Center (501 North Grand Boulevard; 314-799-8399 or www.muddywaterstheatre.com). Tickets are $15 to $20.
Fridays-Sundays. Starts: June 12. Continues through June 28, 2009