"I thought Close's outfits were odd and unflattering (and Plimpton's first one, at least until she removed the jacket), but once you said 1970, they made more sense."
I probably just have so little fashion sense, especially when it comes to women's clothes, that I wasn't bothered. I'm not sure they've decided to set it in 1970, of course, but it did seem to me less than 1966 than just a bit later.
I do think this can be an issue in producing plays that are not strictly realistic and yet are tied to the time when they were written. Sometimes even the authors seem not to realize how closely those pieces are tied to a specific time period, perhaps because they want to think that the pieces are timeless. Of course, if the work is good, it is timeless, while still hard to remove from the time period when it was written.
"And I kept thinking people don't talk like these characters talk, but that's probably my sheltered life."
I don't think people talk like the characters in the play, although it may be that people did talk somewhat like this in the household in which Albee was raised (when he wasn't sent away to schools). I do think that the characters' style of speaking (and certainly some of the individual sentences and speeches) are inspired by a certain way of speaking, but are stylized by Albee. (I think he might deny that, but I think most viewers would agree that no one really speaks like those people sometimes do.)
"But I often feel Albee is trying to tell me something that I'm not getting."
I don't feel that Albee is trying to tell us something. I feel that he is exploring situations and issues with which we all deal: knowledge of mortality and fear of it and how that knowledge affects every aspect of our lives; the stresses involved in familial and social relationships, how we deal with the needs and fears of others and the obligations and demands others place on us; the need for comfort and reassurance and stability to help keep our knowledge that we're going to die at bay; and other things, too. How do we maintain a balance? How do we get enough of the comfort, reassurance and stability we want from others while not feeling too overwhelmed by their need for us to give them the same things?
"I didn't care for Plimpton, who seemed to be yelling and trying too hard."
Perhaps she has toned some of that down since you saw her (unless you were also there last night). I felt that last night she was giving about as understated a performance as can be given of the character, who, as written, is generally barely suppressing hysteria and sometimes expresses it.
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