Malcolm

Edward Albee

"Malcolm is a fantasy of the corruption of innocence Stanley Kauffmann

Malcolm is a 14 year old whom we first meet sitting on a bench in front of an hotel. He is seen by an elderly astrologer, Cox, who speaks to Malcolm and learns that Malcolm has been sitting here every day waiting for his father who has disappeared. Cox begins to dominate the boy psychologically and sends him on a series of visits - ostensibly to integrate him with the world but which ultimately will destroy him.

Malcolm visits a December-May couple (she is a former prostitute, he is an ancient claiming to be 192), a middle-aged couple (he is ludicrously rich, she is attended by four lovers in white suits), a hip couple (an author and a painter) and a blonde pop singer, who takes Malcolm as her latest husband and kills him with drink and sex.

All these characters know one another. They are further linked in the play in that Cox and the Prostitute play all the other roles who meet Malcolm.

At the end of the play all gather round Malcolm's death bed mourning what they have lost.