The Singular Life of Albert Nobbs

Book excerpt: Set in a big Dublin hotel of the mid-nineteenth century, The Singular Life of Albert Nobbs is a total theatre creation. In it, we discover that Albert, the perfect waiter - who never drinks, smokes or flirts with the chambermaids - is in fact a woman who once dressed as a man to avoid poverty and is now trapped in the role. Based on a short story by George Moore, which was recently adapted into a major Hollywood film starring Glenn Close, Benmussa's story releases a string of disturbing questions about the nature of women and society, and is one of the most powerful and groundbreaking plays of the 1970s.