Edward Albee and Harold Pinter are among the most prominent dramatists and playwrights in American and English literature, respectively. The two are regarded as exponents of Theater of the Absurd, which popularized after the second world war. In their plays, they portray absurdist’s aspects of their worlds. Consequently, their plays and drama depict their personalities and interests, which are relatively similar and distinct.

Edward Albee was born in Washington Dc, in the United States and grew p in New York City. He was born in 1928 and diet in September 2016. He schooled in Choate School and later went to Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. Albee began writing poetry but, in the late fifties, turned to plays. The most successful plays that belong to Albee include The Zoo Story (1959), The Sandbox (1959) and The American dream (1961) (McCarthy, 1987). Albee was known to dissect American morality, which saw him win the National Medal of Arts in 1996 (Edward Albee, n.d).

Harold Pinter, on the other hand, was born in 1930 and died in December 2008. He was born in the London Borough of Hackney by a Jewish dressmaker. He became a dramatist as he grew, becoming an anti-Semitic. He began his career as an actor but subsequently joined the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He began publishing his poems in 1950, which helped him join the Central School of Speech and Drama. His playwriting debut was in 1957, with the play, The Room.  Other early plays include The Birthday Party (1957), The Dumb Waiter (1957), The Caretaker (1959) and The Homecoming (1964) (Cohn, 1962). Pinter was also awarded a Nobel Prize in 2020 for his contribution to humankind ("Nobel prize in literature 2005," n.d.).

Notably, Harold Pinter and Edward Albee were the most prominent playwrights of their respective countries, and both receded distressingly early. Both writers had parallel careers, with their plays appearing in theatres at the relatively same time. Harold Pinter’s play, Moonlight, after fifteen years appeared in London, and while it was running, Edward Albee’s pair of plays from fifteen years ago, Listening and Counting the ways, made their preliminary appearance in New York. For that reason, in the fifties, the two were recognized for being part of the theatre of the Absurd movement (Hornby, 1994).

Over time, Albee proved to more strength as a waiter of narrative, which is oddly for playwrights. All Alfre’s plays have expository passages written in his unique style, such as Virginia Woolf, yet suitable to the characters that say them. He uses distinctive American rhythms and cadences and shocking images tossed off casually intimation of psychology with various depth meanings and the absolute acquisitive effect of the narrative that intimidates its listeners. The latter plays have expositions that are equally haunting although less dramatic. In early plays such as The Zoo Story, the speech of Jerry and the dog, and the mutilated child in The American Dream are deliberated to steamroll other characters. Although these speeches from both playwrights have an objective, they also aim to make their drama rather than mere narration (Hornby, 1994).

Ultimately, the public recognizes both playwrights for their dramas but also their contribution to the TheatreTheatre of Absurd. Pinter’s The Caretaker and Albee’s The Zoo Story focus on thematic issues that characterize the absurdist of character is existence transmitted through various techniques. Pinter is recognized for absurd behaviour and revolting black American in front of his oppressors. The latter aimed to convince people that our indifferences and alienation cause the fact that behaviours are analogous to those of animals in the zoo (Hornby, 1994).

Thesis statement: comparison and contrast between Edward Albee and Harold Pinter.

1. Backgrounds of the individuals.
2. Origin
3. Achievements and accolades.
4. Public perception