A Delicate Balance

Tobias and Agnes are a long-married, suburban couple whose home, with several bedrooms and a well-stocked liquor cabinet, provides a refuge and a measure of comfort to their friends and family. Over the course of two evenings, however, the “delicate balance” of their uneasy existence begins to topple. Agnes’ alcoholic sister, Claire, has already set up camp, and when their adult daughter comes home after her fourth failed marriage, and lifelong friends Harry and Edna arrive on their doorstep, frightened and seeking sanctuary from an unnamed terror, the many well-mannered and well-masked feelings finally erupt. Winner of the 1967 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and called “glorious…profoundly touching” by The New York Times, A Delicate Balance is a sharp, witty examination of the limits of our responsibility to family and friends, the difficulty of holding everything together, and how easily it all can fall apart.