''Me, Myself and I'' is a 2007 play by

Edward Albee Edward Franklin Albee III ( ; March 12, 1928 – September 16, 2016) was an American playwright known for works such as ''The Zoo Story'' (1958), '' The Sandbox'' (1959), ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' (1962), '' A Delicate Balance'' (1966) ...

. It is an absurdist family comedy/drama.

Synopsis

The play tells a complex story of Mother, who has an intimate relationship with Doctor, and who has problems telling her 28-year-old sons apart. Part of the problem may be that she has named her two sons “OTTO” and “otto”—an example of what the Doctor calls “symmetry, yes, but not logic”.Albee, Edward. ‘’Me, Myself and I’’. Dramatist Play Service 2011ISBN 0822224992 The play begins when OTTO tells his mother that he’s leaving home to become Chinese and that his brother no longer exists. This upsets otto, who has been searching for some kind of confirmation that he is alive. Maureen, otto’s girlfriend, becomes drawn into this. Word games and semantics, ideas about the various meanings and aspects of love, along with riffs on various cultural references, abound in this play.

Production history

''Me, Myself and I'' was first produced in 2008 at the

McCarter Theatre McCarter Theatre Center is a not-for-profit, professional company on the campus of Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey. The institution is currently led by Artistic Director Sarah Rasmussen and Managing Director Michael S. Rosenberg. ...

in Princeton, New Jersey. It was directed by Emily Mann with set design by Thomas Lynch and costume design by

Jennifer von Mayrhauser Jennifer von Mayrhauser is an American costume designer who has designed costumes for more than thirty Broadway productions, and is notable for her significant contributions in film, television, and theatre. Life and studies Von Mayrhauser was ...

. The cast consisted of

Tyne Daly Ellen Tyne Daly (; born February 21, 1946) is an American actress. She has won six Emmy Awards for her television work, a Tony Award and is a 2011 American Theatre Hall of Fame inductee. Daly began her career on stage in summer stock in New York, ...

(Mother), Michael Esper (OTTO), Brian Murray (Dr.),

Charlotte Parry Charlotte Jane Parry (born 16 August 1976) is a British actress. Personal life Born in Birmingham, England. She graduated from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in 1999. She is also a painter and has trained as a midwife. Career Aft ...

(Maureen), Stephen Payne (the Man) and

Colin Donnell Colin Donnell (born October 9, 1982) is an American actor and singer best known for his performances as Billy Crocker in ''Anything Goes'', Tommy Merlyn in The CW television series ''Arrow'', Scotty Lockhart on the Showtime drama '' The Affair'' ...

(otto). Ben Brantley, in a 2008 review for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', wrote that ''Me, Myself and I'' is “in the tradition of Mr. Albee’s mid- and late-career works like ''The Marriage Play'' and ''

The Play About the Baby ''The Play About the Baby'' is a play by Edward Albee. Productions The play premiered in London in September 1998 at the Almeida Theatre Company in Malvern, Worcestershire, directed by Howard Davies. The play's American premiere was in Houston, ...

'': fragmented philosophical vaudevilles that turn the most fundamental questions of identity into verbal soft-shoes. It also harks back to his early exercises in

absurdism Absurdism is the philosophical theory that existence in general is absurd. This implies that the world lacks Meaning of life, meaning or a higher purpose and is not fully intelligible by reason. The term "absurd" also has a more specific sense ...

(including the one-acters '' The Sandbox'' and '' The American Dream''), coal-black comedies from a time when brash young writers reveled in toppling theatrical traditions."Brantley, Ben. “Ta-ta! Give ’Em the Old Existential Soft-Shoe”New York Times. 28 January 200

/ref> The play premiered in New York at Playwrights Horizons in September 2010. The cast featured Elizabeth Ashley (Mother),

Zachary Booth Zachary Booth (born 1983) is an American actor. He appeared in several productions with the Peterborough Players in Peterborough, New Hampshire, before starring in The N's ''What Goes On'' and on FX's ''Damages''. Booth is a 2004 BFA graduate of ...

(OTTO), Brian Murray (Dr.), Natalia Payne (Maureen), Stephen Payne (the Man) and Preston Sadleir (otto).

References

{{Edward Albee Plays by Edward Albee 2007 plays