Agnes's only son died years ago, swallowed by the mortal chasm that yawns in the background of every Albee play.

A third Albee play, "All Over," which had been adapted for television, is in this collection.

This sounds like a set-up for an Albee play, and it's both jarring and intriguing to find so much gravitas on a multicamera laugh-track network sitcom.

Reality in this Albee play is something that most of its characters try to escape.

No Albee play has been seen at Hartford Stage during the time of Mark Lamos, the theater's current artistic head.

For Hartford Stage, it's the second time around for "Tiny Alice" the eighth production of an Albee play.

The sportive Albee play, which follows the more weighty Beckett works, comes as a welcome break, the actors agreed.

In the play questions of kidnapping and child abandonment are raised, and theatergoers may think about related cases in the news and in other Albee plays.

"Like an Albee play," Mr. Higgins said, "I have to give the impression that a performance is one sustained event, even though it actually has many parts."

Yet for all this experience, Ms. Harris is only in her second Albee play.