Albee Sees Nihilism As Force in Drama

"People claim that the new forces in drama today are concerned with nihilism, anti-theater, anti-people, and anti-God," Edward Albee, author of the prize-winning off-Broadway play, "Zoo Story," declared last night. "Well, so they are. Be glad of it."

In a speech which concluded the four-day Quincy-Holmes Arts Festival, Albee declared that the new playwrights were now concerned with "the absurdity of man in the universe."

"It's a good sign, after a very long hiatus, that they're concerned with fundamentals," he said. "It's a very positive movement."

Commenting on theatrical trends, he noted that on Broadway, every season is called worse than the one before--and it's usually true. More and more of Broadway is being left to expensive musicals and those serious plays like "Under the Yum-Yum Tree," and "jazz like that." He observed that off-Broadway has become "the conscience of the theatre."