Directed by Alan Schneider, the cast featured John C. Becher (Daddy), Jane Hoffman (Mommy), Sudie Bond (Grandma), Nancy Cushman (Mrs. Barker), and Ben Piazza (the Young Man).
[1][2] The play was presented Off-Broadway at the Cherry Lane Theatre in September 1962 in a double bill with The Zoo Story, directed by Schneider.
[3] The play was produced Off-Broadway at the Cherry Lane Theatre from March 23, 1964 to November 8, 1964, in a double bill with Dutchman by LeRoi Jones.
Directed by Albee, the cast featured Judith Ivey (Mommy), George Bartenieff (Daddy), and Lois Markle (Grandma).
After hearing his life story, Grandma realizes that this Young Man, whom she dubs "The American Dream," is the twin of Mommy and Daddy's first child.
As he states in the preface to the play, "It is an examination of the American Scene, an attack on the substitution of artificial for real values in our society, a condemnation of complacency, cruelty, emasculation, and vacuity; it is a stand against the fiction that everything in this slipping land of ours is peachy-keen."
Press notes state: "It is a ferocious, uproarious attack on the substitution of artificial for real values, a startling tale of murder and morality that rocks middle-class ethics to their complacent foundations.
"[11] The "New York Theatre Guide" reviewers wrote of the 2008 production: "Though hardly great theater, these one-acts give important insight into the budding playwright...